Men's Tennis Hosts ITA Southern Regionals Thursday Through Tuesday

Auburn is hosting the men's tennis 2021 ITA Southern Regionals this Thursday through Tuesday at the Yarbrough Tennis Center, a qualifier for the Oracle/ITA National Fall Championships.  

Teams participating include host Auburn, Alabama, Alabama State, Alcorn State, Jacksonville State, Louisiana, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Samford, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Troy, Tulane and UAB.

"Our guys love hosting – it's special," Auburn head coach Bobby Reynolds said. "We appreciate all the work of people behind the scenes to allow our guys to compete at home in familiar surroundings. We're going to have beautiful weather, so we can get all those matches in outside, and we look for great results for our guys.

"You're going to see guys from all different schools – there are 10-12 guys in the top 50 in the country in singles and 8-10 doubles teams in the top 75 playing this weekend. If you want to see good tennis in general and come out to support Auburn, tennis is going to be going on all day Thursday, all day Friday, all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday, and then the semifinals and finals Monday and Tuesday.

"We're having success this fall so far," Reynolds added. "We had success in our hidden dual against Clemson, Miami and Vanderbilt, and we had success out in Tulsa, with Tad Maclean coming through the qualifying round winning three great matches, beating two guys he lost to last year in conference play and a top 25 player from Notre Dame. And of our four guys who went to Athens this weekend, two of them went 3-1.

"We're happy as a coaching staff with where our guys are and there's obviously still a lot of room for improvement, which is exciting. Being able to go back and watch video with our guys and say, 'Look at all the success you've had this fall compared to last year and adding a couple more things into your game, look where we can go.' That's exciting.

"Regionals give us another opportunity to compete and to show our opponents where we are and an opportunity to continue to grow."

Thursday and Friday will be qualifying rounds in singles; the main draws for both singles and doubles begin Saturday.

Auburn will have Spencer Gray, Josh Raab and Jackson Ross in the qualifying round, while Tyler Stice, Tad Maclean, Finn Murgett, Jan Galka and Raul Dobai will begin play in the main draw.

The Tigers' doubles pairings will be Stice and Galka, Murgett and Dobai, Maclean and Raab, and Ross and Gray.

Play begins Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 9 a.m.; Sunday, Monday and Tuesday start times will be set later. Go to www.AuburnTigers.com for bracket information and match times.

All Auburn home tennis action is at the Yarbrough Tennis Center (1717 Richland Road, Auburn). Fans are welcome to attend all matches; fans may want to bring lawn chairs or blankets for outdoor seating. If matches are played indoors, face coverings will be required for admittance.
 
The singles finalists and doubles champions advance to the ITA National Fall Championships in San Diego, Calif., in November.
 
Auburn has had four regional singles winners in the past dozen years: 2009: Tim Puetz; 2011: Andreas Mies; 2014: Lukas Ollert; 2015: Max Hinnisdaels. Tim Dollman was a singles and doubles finalist in 2019.