AUBURN, Ala. – The No. 19 Auburn men’s tennis team is set to host Charlotte and Alabama on Friday and Sunday at the Yarbrough Tennis Center. The Tigers will kick off Go Wild War Eagle Weekend against Charlotte at 2 p.m. CT Friday before facing rival Alabama at 1 p.m. CT Sunday.
“In most of the matches from here on out, we’re not an underdog,” Auburn head coach Bobby Reynolds said. “That’s a great thing because we’re playing great tennis and we’ve got a great club, but we have to make sure that we don’t try to protect. If you try to protect, we’re not going to play our best tennis, so we’re going out there playing with excitement, playing with trust and allowing the unforced errors to be wiped off our backs. It’s important for us to figure out how to be successful individually in these matches throughout the course of the weekend.”
Auburn went 2-1 last weekend, edging Tennessee 4-3 on the road Friday evening before falling to fifth-ranked Mississippi State at home Sunday afternoon. The Tigers then bounced back with a 4-0 shutout over Eastern Kentucky on Sunday evening. Auburn enters Friday’s match with an 11-2 overall record and a 2-1 mark in conference play.
Sophomore Hamza Nasridinov, now ranked No. 33 in singles by the ITA, provided the match-deciding point in Auburn’s dramatic 4-3 win over Tennessee and earned another ranked singles victory Sunday against Mississippi State. Both wins came in three sets at the No. 1 singles position. The pair of victories continues the Auburn sophomore’s standout 2025–26 campaign, as he is now 21-3 overall in singles and 7-1 in dual matches.
Charlotte arrives on the Plains with an 8-2 overall record and has yet to begin American Athletic Conference play. The 49ers defeated Georgia Tech on Feb. 6 and fell to No. 16 Clemson on Feb. 8. In the latest ITA National Team Rankings, released Tuesday, Charlotte appears at No. 53.
Sunday marks the second meeting of the season between Auburn and Alabama. The Tigers earned a 4-1 win over the Crimson Tide during ITA Kickoff Weekend in Starkville, Mississippi. In that match, Auburn dropped the doubles point and the opening set on each of the top four singles courts before rallying for a comeback victory with strong singles play. Alabama still leads the all-time series 49-39.
“We always know that there’s a lot of emotion when Auburn plays Alabama,” Reynolds said. “We played them earlier in the year at ITA Kickoff and came out slow. We were able to turn that around and get the win, but we can’t afford to do that again. We have to come out ready with emotion, use the fact that we’re playing at home to our advantage and use the momentum that we’ve had up to this point.”
The Crimson Tide, ranked No. 70 in the ITA team rankings, hold a 7-7 overall record and a 1-2 SEC mark. After dropping their first two conference matches of the season to No. 3 Texas and No. 5 LSU, Alabama won four straight contests, including its first SEC victory of the year over Arkansas at home. Alabama will face eighth-ranked Georgia on Friday in Athens before taking on the Tigers on Sunday.
Fans attending matches at the Yarbrough Tennis Center will receive Spring Break-themed giveaways while supplies last as part of Go Wild War Eagle Weekend. On Friday, “On Yarb Time” cups will be distributed, and on Sunday, fans will receive Auburn men’s tennis tank tops while supplies last. QR codes displayed at each match will provide raffle entries for a YETI prize pack that will be given away at Sunday’s Auburn baseball game against Winthrop.
Live video and live scoring for each match will be available at AuburnTigers.com. Admission to all matches at the Yarbrough Tennis Center is free, and additional fan information is available at AuburnTigers.com/MatchDay.
Auburn in the rankings (ITA)
Singles:
33 – Hamza Nasridinov
61 – Billy Blaydes
Doubles: