Jan. 23, 2009
AUBURN - The No. 29 ranked Auburn men's tennis team took to the courts on Friday afternoon to kick off its 2009 spring season at the Auburn Spring Classic.
The day started with Arkansas taking on LSU in the morning and the Tigers facing Virginia Tech to finish the day.
Getting the afternoon started for Auburn was the No. 10 ranked duo of Alexey Tsyrenov and Tim Puetz, who defeated Nicolas Delgado de Robles and Luka Somen, 8-2, in the first flight. Also finding a doubles victory were Lukas Marsoun and Alex Stamchev, who earned an 8-6 win against Yoann Re and Sebastien Jacques.
In flight three, senior Milan Krnjetin and freshman Michel Monteiro fell to Pedro Graber and Patrick Daciek, 8-2. Auburn's last doubles team, Alex Petropoulos and Powell Porter, also lost in an 8-3 match against Corrado Tocci and Brandon Corace in the fourth flight.
Leading the Tigers into singles play, Puetz faced Pedro Graber and took a 6-4, 6-2 victory in the flight. Next to finish in singles was Marsoun, who defeated Re, 6-4, 6-2, in flight three.
In a marathon match, Tsyrenov earned a 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 over Delgado de Robles in the first singles flight.
In flight four, Stamchev lost to Luka Somen, 6-1, 6-4. Krnjetin fell to Sebastien Jacques, 6-3, 7-5 in flight five. After winning the first set, Petropoulos lost to Brandon Corace, 5-7, 6-2, 6-3, in the sixth flight.
Ending the night for Auburn, Monteiro took a 2-6, 0-6 defeat against Daciek in the seventh flight and Porter was beat by Corrado Tocci, 3-6, 2-6.
"It was a typical first day for us," head coach Eric Shore said. "There were some nervous guys out there and some other guys who looked sharp. Overall, we're where we thought we'd be."
"This tournament is to get ready for next weekend and it will be our final evaluation for that."
Day two of the Auburn Spring Classic will begin at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday at the Yarbrough Tennis Center with Virginia Tech taking on LSU. Auburn will take action against Arkansas at 2:00 in the afternoon.