Auburn's Tad Maclean has advanced to the ITA Southern Regional singles final, as the championships draw to a conclusion at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.
Tuesday morning, Maclean will face Nikola Slavic of Ole Miss in the regional singles final. That match will begin at 10 a.m. The singles and doubles finalists advance to the ITA National Fall Championships in San Diego, Calif., in November.
Maclean came from behind to defeat his Auburn teammate Jan Galka in the semifinals. Galka won the first set 6-2, but Maclean caught momentum and won the second and third sets by 6-2 scores.
Slavic defeated his Ole Miss teammate Finn Reynolds in the other semifinal by a 6-3, 6-3 score.
Auburn's Finn Murgett and Raul Dobai gave a valiant effort but fell short in their doubles semifinal against LSU's Vlad Lobak and Gabriel Diaz Freire. The LSU tandem took the first set 6-3, but Murgett and Dobai fought back to force a second-set tiebreaker, where LSU won 7-6 (5).
Alabama's Filip Planinsek and Juan Martin advanced to the doubles final with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Ruan DuPreeze and Samrakshyak Bajracharya of Alabama State.
In the doubles final, played Monday evening, Planinsek and Martin of Alabama captured the regional crown with a 6-2, 7-6 (4) victory over Lobak and Diaz Freire.
Teams participating in the tournament, which began Thursday, included host Auburn, Alabama, Alabama State, Alcorn State, Jacksonville State, Louisiana, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Samford, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Troy, Tulane and UAB.
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.
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.
