Oct. 23, 2010
AUBURN, Ala. - The Auburn men's tennis team kicked off the 2010 ITA Southern Regional tournament Friday and has enjoyed a very successful start to tournament. Junior Alex Stamchev and sophomore Tim Hewitt have each recorded three singles victories, while pairing up for three doubles wins so far.
"It has been a great couple of days for Tim (Hewitt) and Alex (Stamchev)," head coach Eric Shore said. "I'm really proud of how they continue to compete and I have confidence they can keep it up through the rest of the tournament."
Hewitt had a quick two-set victory on Friday, defeating UAB's Nick Ianuzzi (6-0, 6-2) to move on to the round of 32. He opened Saturday with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Tulane's Takuma Ohashi and followed with a 6-4, 6-4 win over top-seeded and Marcel Thiemann of Ole Miss, who is also the 15th-ranked singles player nationally.
Stamchev opened singles play Friday with a quick two-set win over Mississippi State's Max Gregor, 6-2, 6-0. He followed with a two-set win over Samford's Carl Abalos (6-2, 6-3) on Saturday morning and concluded the day with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Romain Bocaert of South Alabama.
Stamchev and Hewitt joined forces in doubles competition and earned an 8-3 win over Alex Durham and Adrian Skogeng of Ole Miss on Friday. The pair followed with 8-6 win over Hanno Bartsch and Christian Kuehne of South Alabama to reach the quarterfinals. Stamchev and Hewitt concluded the day with another 8-6 win as the pair defeated the 22nd-ranked team in the country in Jonas Lutjen and Tucker Vorster of Ole Miss.
"Tim beat a very tough opponent from Ole Miss and I'm excited for his efforts today," Shore said. "Alex continues to be a solid player both in singles and in doubles."
Also competing in the tournament were sophomores Davis Taylor and Michael Wardell. Taylor opened up singles competition Friday and earned a two-set (6-4, 7-6) win over Alex Durham of Ole Miss. Taylor fell to LSU's Mark Bowtell in two sets (6-1, 6-1) to finish singles play.
Wardell picked up a singles win on Friday, defeating Tulane's Jonas Lutjen in two sets (6-0, 7-5). In the round of 32, Wardell fell in a three-set battle to South Alabama's Hanno Bartsch (6-0, 2-6, 4-6). Wardell and Taylor paired up to compete in doubles and lost to Alabama's Ricky Doverspike and Vikram Reddy, 8-3, on Friday afternoon.
Competition continues Sunday as Hewitt faces Bowtell and Stamchev takes on second-seeded Neal Skupski of LSU. Both matches are set to start at 9 a.m. The pair will compete at 2:30 p.m. in the semifinals of doubles competition.