March 21, 2009
Montgomery, Ala. - The No. 30 Auburn men's tennis team (9-5) took a 4-2 loss to the No. 4 Tennessee Vols (13-3) in Saturday's semifinal round of the Blue/Gray National Tennis Classic.
Auburn dropped the doubles point for the first time of the weekend and was unable to recover singles play.
Starting the afternoon, Auburn's top pair of Alexey Tsyrenov and Tim Puetz took the only doubles win of the day, earning an 8-5 win over the No. 8 pair of John-Patrick Smith and Davey Sandgren. Tsyrenov and Puetz, the No. 10 duo, claimed two wins this weekend and move to 11-1 on the season.
Tennessee took the point as Boris Conkic and Matteo Fago defeated Lukas Marsoun and Alex Stamchev, 8-6, and Bryan Swartz and Matt Brewer topped Auburn's Milan Krnjetin and Alex Petropoulos, 8-6.
In singles play, the Tigers found only two wins en route to a loss. Auburn made its first mark on the scoreboard as Krnjetin beat Matt Brewer, 7-6, 6-3, on court five.
The next Auburn win came as Stamchev rallied to take a three-set victory over Sandgren, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1. The freshman was perfect in the weekend competition, tallying three singles victories.
The Vols took the match as they gathered the three necessary points. On the front court, No. 7 Smith topped Auburn's No. 44 Tsyrenov in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1. Finding another win was Fago, who defeated Marsoun, 6-1, 6-4.
Clinching the match for Tennessee was Christian Hansen as he beat Petropoulos on court six, 7-6, 6-3.
Puetz's match on court two against No. 25 Conkic was entering a third set when the Vols clinched the match. After dropping the first set, 6-3, the sophomore answered with a 7-6 second set to force a third.
The 4-2 loss drops the Tigers to 9-5 on the season, while the Vols move to 13-3. The Tigers are finished with the Classic, but Tennessee will move into tomorrow's final, where they will face SEC-foe Alabama at 1 p.m.
Auburn's next action will come on Friday, as the Tigers travel to Nashville to face No. 49 Vanderbilt.