AUBURN, Ala. – Top athletes from Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana head to the Plains as Auburn men’s tennis hosts the ITA Southern Regional Championships at the Yarbrough Tennis Center Oct. 8-12.
“We’re lucky,” head coach Bobby Reynolds said. “We are one of two or three schools that hosts this regional on a rotation due to our court size, our indoor backup and courts on campus to facilitate this tournament. This is one of the three big tournaments of the fall for guys to qualify for the NCAA tournament in November. It’s also a great chance for our team to learn and take the information we’ve been giving them and implement it into action when they are on the court individually.”
The two singles finalists at this year’s ITA Southern Regional Championships, as well as the doubles champions, will earn automatic bids to the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships. The national events are scheduled for Nov. 17-22 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Georgia.
Competition begins Thursday with two rounds of singles qualifying with 16 players advancing to Friday’s main draw. The opening rounds of both the singles and doubles main draws are scheduled for Friday. Play will continue throughout the weekend until champions are crowned.
Auburn takes the court Friday with six Tigers competing in the singles main draw: Freddy Blaydes, Tyler Bowers, Alvaro Jimenez, Manel Lazaro, Patrik Munkhammar and Joey Phillips. Auburn will also field three doubles teams this weekend with Bowers and Blaydes, Munkhammar and Jimenez, and Phillips and Jake Kennedy pairing up.
“We’ve got a great group of guys,” Reynolds added. “We’re a little bit younger this season. We have some unfamiliar pairings than we have had in the past on the doubles side. We have natural doubles players, so now it is time for us to put them together and find that chemistry.”
Admission to all rounds of the ITA Southern Regional Championships at the Yarbrough Tennis Center is free with competition scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. CT each day. Daily competition schedules for Auburn student-athletes will be shared on the Auburn men’s tennis social media accounts.
Live video of select matches will be available at AuburnTigers.com. Live results will be provided at wearecollegetennis.com.