AUBURN, Ala. – No. 18 Auburn men’s tennis will play its next four matches on the road, beginning with No. 13 Vanderbilt on Friday afternoon and Kentucky on Sunday afternoon. The Tigers will face the Commodores at 1 p.m. CT at the Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Tennis Center in Nashville, Tennessee, on Friday before traveling north to play the Wildcats on Sunday at noon CT at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex in Lexington.
“We’ve done a great job over the years of protecting that home court advantage,” Auburn head coach Bobby Reynolds said. “We play really well at home and we just have to change our mindsets. We’re not going to have the home crowd behind us and we’re not going to have the comforts of home, so we have to be ready mentally and emotionally for some tough challenges.
“Vandy is a very good team and coached very well. They are physical in the way that they play and they build points, so it’s not going to be easy. Then we’ll go to Kentucky where, if we play indoors, the courts are very fast and there are only four indoor courts. So just the flow of the match can be different.”
Auburn is 13-2 overall this season and holds a 3-1 mark in conference matches. Over the weekend, the Tigers defeated Charlotte by a 6-1 score on Friday before shutting out rival Alabama 4-0 in the Iron Bowl of Tennis on Sunday. The two wins helped move Auburn back to No. 18 in the latest ITA national team rankings released Tuesday and move up three spots to No. 16 in the UTR College Team Rankings released Wednesday.
Auburn redshirt junior Nicholas Heng was instrumental in the Tigers’ wins over the weekend with two straight-set singles wins as well as clinching the doubles point in both matches. Heng’s 6-3, 6-0 win over Matic Kriznik on Sunday, the 75th-ranked singles player in the nation, improved his dual match record to 9-3 this season.
Vanderbilt will enter Friday’s match with a 12-4 overall record and a 4-2 conference record. After losing to Mississippi State to open conference play, the Commodores defeated Tennessee, Oklahoma, No. 14 Texas A&M and Arkansas. Their winning streak ended Sunday with a 4-3 loss to Ole Miss on the road. Auburn leads the all-time series over Vanderbilt 37-22 and the Tigers won last season’s matchup 4-3 in a home match that was clinched by a straight-set victory from Billy Blaydes.
Kentucky currently holds a 9-6 overall record this season and a 2-3 mark in SEC play. The Wildcats are 8-3 in home matches and will host Alabama on Friday evening before facing Auburn on Sunday. Kentucky has three ranked victories this season, defeating No. 20 Michigan State and No. 15 Duke in nonconference play as well as No. 20 Oklahoma on Friday. Kentucky controls the all-time series over Auburn 39-24, but the Tigers won the most recent matchup last season 4-3 on a three-set singles win by Heng.
Live video and scoring for Friday’s match will be available at VUCommodores.com, while live video and scoring for Sunday’s match will be available at UKAthletics.com.
Auburn in the rankings (ITA)
Singles:
33 – Hamza Nasridinov
61 – Billy Blaydes
Doubles: