AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn is set to play two road matches this week, facing rival Alabama on Thursday at 6 p.m. CT and No. 12 Mississippi State on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT.
The Tigers enter Thursday’s match having won six of their last seven matches, most recently defeating Arkansas 4-2 at home on Saturday.
“We have a tough stretch coming up these next few weeks,” Auburn head coach Bobby Reynolds said. “We’re on the road each of the next two weeks, then have the SEC Championship on the road, but our guys understand that. Alabama is going to be tough. They’ve had some up-and-down results this year but are a very experienced team. They’re strong at No. 1 with a former singles national champion who has only lost once this spring, so we know that’s going to be a tough position. But after that, it’s up for grabs.”
Auburn celebrated its final regular-season home match at the Yarbrough Tennis Center on Saturday with a win, securing a tightly contested doubles point before earning three singles victories from Will Nolan, Billy Blaydes and Nicholas Heng.
Heng had an emotional day Saturday, delivering both the doubles point-clinching win and the match-clinching singles victory over Arkansas. In doubles, Heng and partner Jake Kennedy erased a 4-1 deficit in a tiebreaker to win 9-7 and secure the doubles point for the Tigers. Later, Heng prevailed in a third-set tiebreaker against Arthur Bellegy to clinch the team victory.
Heng is currently 21-12 in singles this season and 14-5 in dual matches for Auburn.
Alabama enters Thursday’s Iron Bowl of tennis with a 13-9 overall record and a 3-8 mark in conference play. The Crimson Tide have dropped six of their last seven SEC matches, with their lone win coming against Kentucky on March 22.
Reigning NCAA singles champion Filip Planinsek has had a strong season at the top of Alabama’s lineup, compiling a 15-1 overall record. He is ranked No. 14 in the latest ITA national singles rankings.
Alabama leads the all-time series against Auburn 48-38, but the Tigers have won three of the last four regular-season matchups.
Auburn’s Saturday opponent, Mississippi State, climbed from No. 17 to No. 12 in the latest ITA national team rankings, released Tuesday, after defeating Arkansas and Florida over the weekend. The Bulldogs are 17-4 overall and tied for the fourth-best conference record in the SEC at 7-3. Mississippi State has also been dominant at home this season, posting a 15-1 record.
“Mississippi State is really physical from No. 1 to No. 6,” Reynolds said. “It’s going to be hot and humid, and that’s what we have to prepare for mentally and physically.”
The Bulldogs have four ranked singles players and multiple ranked doubles teams, including No. 2 Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez. Saturday’s match will likely feature a rematch of the 2024 ITA Southern Regional Doubles Championship final, where Auburn’s Billy Blaydes and Will Nolan defeated Jovanovic and Sanchez Martinez 7-6 (1), 4-6, [11-9] in October. The victory made Blaydes and Nolan the first Auburn doubles team to win the Southern Regional title since 2009.
Live video and scoring for Thursday’s match will be available at RollTide.com, while coverage for Saturday’s match will be available at HailState.com.