Now ranked No. 39 nationally after a pair of wins over ranked teams last weekend, Auburn men's tennis hosts two more top-ranked SEC opponents this weekend in action Friday and Sunday at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.
The Tigers (6-7, 2-3 SEC) entertain No. 4 Tennessee (15-2, 4-1 SEC) Friday in a 2 p.m. match. The Volunteers won the consolation draw at the national indoor championship earlier this season.
On Sunday, Auburn hosts No. 20 Georgia (6-4, 1-4 SEC) in a noon match, concluding four days of home tennis at Yarbrough; the Auburn women have home matches Thursday and Saturday.
"Tennessee is in the top three in the country and very, very good. Georgia is around the top 10 and very, very good, so this is a different pressure this weekend," Auburn head coach Bobby Reynolds said. "These are matches where everything we have been stressing to the guys will be important -- game style, holding serve at all times, being aggressive and coming to the net, not being passive and hoping they miss – these teams will not give you free errors. We definitely need to tighten up some of the matches but we also need to be able to go out and play freely.
"This is an opportunity where we just go out and play our best tennis and see what happens. We're not trying to beat them 10 out of 10 times; we're trying to beat them one out of 10 times. I think if we go out there and play and compete like we have, and play freely, there's no reason why we can't pick off one or two of these teams."
For Tennessee, Adam Walton is ranked No. 24 nationally in singles and Pat Harper is No. 124. Nationally ranked for Georgia are Trent Bryde (9), Philip Henning (18) and Tyler Zink (73) in singles and the doubles pairings of Bryde and Zink (8) and Henning and Blake Croyder (20).
All Auburn home tennis action is at the Yarbrough Tennis Center (1717 Richland Road, Auburn). Fans wearing face coverings are welcome to attend all matches played outdoors; fans may want to bring lawn chairs or blankets for seating to remain socially distanced. If weather moves the match indoors, only participants and officials will be admitted.