March 19, 2009
Montgomery, Ala. - In the opening day of the Blue/Gray National Tennis Classic, the No. 30 Auburn men's tennis team (8-4, 2-2 SEC) defeated No. 61 William and Mary (13-10), 4-1.
The Tigers opened the day by taking the doubles point and then continued to roll through the singles competition.
In doubles play, it was the top two Auburn pairs claiming the point. The No. 10 duo in the nation, Alexey Tsyrenov and Tim Puetz, defeated Keziel Juneau and Sebastien Vidal, 8-4. The pair continues to dominate the front court as they move to 10-1 on the season.
The two-spot Auburn team of Lukas Marsoun and Alex Stamchev also took the double victory, 8-1, over the Tribe's Ilja Orre and Varun Pandit. The court-two win gave the Tigers the doubles point and the early advantage.
The final doubles match-up between Auburn's Milan Krnjetin and Alex Petropoulos and the Tribe's Dominic Pagon and Marwan Ramadan did not finish as the Tigers had already taken the point.
Auburn wasted no time in singles, carrying the early momentum into the late-morning action. Expanding the early Auburn lead, freshman Stamchev took a 6-1, 6-2 win over Orre. The Auburn newcomer has won six of his last seven match-ups.
Petropoulos found the second singles point for the Tigers as he defeated Pandit, 6-4, 6-0. Next to finish for Auburn was Marsoun, who clinched the day-one match for the Tigers with his 0-6, 6-1, 6-4 win against Vidal.
Auburn's only loss came as Tsyrenov was unable to top the Tribe's Juneau, 6-1, 6-4.
The two remaining singles match-ups did not finish because the match had already been clinched. Puetz's standoff against Ramadan was entering a third set, while Krnjetin was up one set over Pagon.
The Tigers will face the winner of Fresno State and Oklahoma State in their match tomorrow at 11 a.m. at the Lagoon Park Tennis Center.
Fans that are unable attend the match may follow along with live stats at AuburnTigers.com.