Feb. 11, 2007
Auburn - The Auburn men's tennis team spent Saturday afternoon at the University of South Florida battling the Bulls on the court. The Tigers finished off South Florida, 5-2, and continued its uphill climb to 4-0 on the season, while South Florida dropped to 1-4.
South Florida is the first team on Auburn's schedule thus far that the Tigers have not swept, 7-0.
"I thought our seniors playing in our No.1 and No.2 spots, Alex [Schweizer] and Robbert [Lathouwers], did a good job starting us off in singles," said Auburn head coach Eric Shore. "The bottom of our lineup, on courts No.5 and No.6, also did a good job winning their matches. Those have been strong points for South Florida all year."
Auburn started off the match strong in doubles, and while the Bulls threatened to charge throughout singles play, the Tigers stood their ground to bring in the 5-2 win.
In doubles, Auburn's Robbert Lathouwers and Lukas Marsoun overcame Henning Hipp and Daniel Daudt in the No.1 match, 8-5. On the No.2 court, South Florida's Mahmoud Hamed and Thomas Estrada defeated Alex Schweizer and Pawel Dilaj, 8-2. The doubles point was decided by, Milan Krnjetin and Alexey Tsyrenov, who ended up taking the Bulls with an exhilarating 8-2 win over Mark Gattiker and Marc Jaeger at the No.3 spot.
Schweizer was quick to charge first in single play, winning the No. 1 match against the Bull's Hipp 6-1, 6-1. The early win gave Auburn a strong 2-0 lead that they battled hard to hang on to for the remainder of the day.
The Tiger's No.2, Lathouwers, brought on a second win in the singles matches, defeating Jaeger 6-3, 6-2. On the No.4 court, Auburn found trouble as South Florida's Hamed beat Krnjetin 6-1, 6-1.
The Tigers bounced back momentarily with a 6-4, 6-4, win as Dilaj conquered Estrada in the No. 5 spot, moving the Tigers forward 4-1. The win was slightly overshadowed on court No.3, when South Florida's Ales Svigelj beat Marsoun 6-4, 6-4.
Auburn, however, was not finished. The No. 6 match closed the gate on the Bulls for good as Tsyrenov triumphed over Diego Toledo 6-3, 6-3. The Tiger's took their victory and arrived home with a 4-0 record.
The Auburn men's tennis team will be resuming play on Feb. 17, as they return home to take on Georgia Tech at 12 p.m., on the home courts at the Auburn Tennis Complex.
Doubles Results
1) Lathouwers/Marsoun (AU) def. Hipp/Daudt (USF) 8-5
2) Hamed/Estrada (USF) def. Schweizer/Dilaj (AU) 8-2
3) Krnjetin/Tsyrenov (AU) def. Gattiker/Jaeger (USF) 8-2
Singles Results
1) Alex Schweizer (AU) def. Henning Hipp (USF) 6-1, 6-1
2) Robbert Lathouwers (AU) def. Marc Jaeger (USF) 6-3, 6-2
3) Ales Svigelj (USF) def. Lukas Marsoun (AU) 6-4, 6-4
4) Mahmoud Hamed (USF) def. Milan Krnjetin (AU) 6-1, 6-1
5) Pawel Dilaj (AU) def. Thomas Estrada (USF) 6-4, 6-4
6) Alexey Tsyrenov (AU) def. Diego Toledo (USF) 6-3, 6-3