March 20, 2009
Montgomery, Ala. - The No. 30 Auburn men's tennis team (9-4, 2-2 SEC) took a 4-2 win over No. 25 Oklahoma State (7-2) in Friday's action at the Blue/Gray National Tennis Classic.
In day two, the Tigers claimed a spot in the semifinals as they took the doubles point by storm and rode the momentum through singles play.
"It was a solid effort by everybody today," head coach Eric Shore stated. "We got off to a good start and we played well in doubles. We started well in singles and kept the momentum and were able to close out the match."
At the start of the late-morning match, Auburn found doubles wins on the back two courts. First were Milan Krnjetin and Alex Petropoulos taking the 8-3 winner over Anton Bobytskyi and Aleksey Bessonov to make the doubles point possible for the Tigers.
Clinching the point for Auburn were Lukas Marsoun and Alex Stamchev, who took an 8-4 victory over Mikhail Trukshanin and Igor Sobolta. During the tournament, Marsoun and Stamchev have given the Tigers two doubles victories which led to the Tigers taking the early point.
Alexey Tsyrenov and Tim Puetz, the No. 10 duo, did not finish their match-up against the No. 19 pair of Oleksandr Nedovyesov and Nathan Byrnes because Auburn had taken the point.
Going into singles play, Auburn kept the heat, taking quick wins on courts two and four. First for the Tigers was No. 6 Puetz, who topped Trukshanin, 6-1, 6-3. The win was the first for the sophomore of the weekend, as his match yesterday did not finish.
On court four, freshman Stamchev claimed a 6-3, 6-1 win over Bessonov to put Auburn within one point of the match.
Oklahoma State tallied two singles points to keep the match open as Byrnes defeated Marsoun, 6-3, 6-3, and Bobytskyi defeated Krnjetin, 6-2, 6-0.
With the match at 3-2 for Auburn, senior Petropoulos stepped up take the clinching point as he beat Sobolta, 6-2, 7-5. The win gave Petropoulos his second win of the tournament.
No. 44 Tsyrenov faced No. 2 Nedovyesov and took the first set, 7-6, but the match-up went undecided as Auburn had already taken the win.
The 4-2 win places the Tigers in Saturday's semifinal round, where the team will face the winner of No. 4 Tennessee and No. 33 Texas Tech.
"Tomorrow is going to be tough, but we have a good opportunity," Shore mentioned. "We are getting better and we'll have to keep working hard because tomorrow is going to be a good challenge for us."
Semifinal action is set to begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Lagoon Park Tennis Center. Fans that are unable to attend the match may follow along with live stats here.