Nov. 21, 2008
AUBURN - The Auburn men's tennis team opened its final fall tournament Friday at home at the Auburn Fall Classic with wins on every court. The Tigers took all three doubles matches as well as seven singles match-ups against Samford.
Auburn was forced to make some adjustments to start doubles as Tim Puetz and Lukas Marsoun were unable to compete due to injury and illness. The new lineup combined senior Alexey Tsyrenov with freshman Alexander Stamchev on court one.
The duo teamed up for the first doubles win over Samford's Brian Dushock and Kelwin Dewet, 8-3. On court two, Milan Krnjetin and Michel Monteiro took down Michael Browder and Ryan Walsh, 8-6, for the Tigers second win.
The last win came from the team of Nick Maurillo and Alex Petropoulos over Carl Abalos and Oliver Reynolds, 8-3.
Singles competition was all Auburn as well as Tsyrenov started it off with a quick win over Dushock, 6-1, 6-1.
Krnjetin and Maurillo kept the momentum going with back-to-back wins on courts three and four. Krnjetin defeated Dewet, 6-3, 6-3, just minutes before Maurilo pulled out a 6-2, 6-3 win over Reynolds.
Petropoulos then defeated Abalos, 6-3, 6-1, and Monteiro took out Carson Kadi on courts five and six to keep the Tigers rolling.
Stamchev, playing in the No. 2 position, pulled out the win a tight, 6-2, 7-5, victory leaving Auburn only one win away from a perfect day.
Powell Porter was the last Tiger to finish playing in the No. 7 spot versus Browder. To match went back and forth as Browder took the first set 6-4, but Porter came right back with a 6-4 set of his own. The match went to a third set tie-breaker where Porter was able to sneak past Browder, 10-6, to make the Tigers a perfect 7-0 in the tournament's first day.
South Carolina faced Troy earlier in the day, taking two of three doubles matches as well as picking up six singles victories. The teams will switch it up Saturday as Troy will take on Samford at 9:30 a.m. Auburn and South Carolina will wrap up the day at 2 p.m.
While the Auburn Fall Classic pits teams against each other, the matches are scored individually with champions in each of the seven flights being named at the completion of the tournament.