The No. 18 Alabama men’s tennis team held the 3-0 advantage before No. 43 Ole Miss battled back to win 4-3 on Saturday afternoon at the Alabama Tennis Stadium. With the loss, the Crimson Tide drops to 12-6 overall and 2-4 in Southeastern Conference play, while the Rebels move to 10-8 and 2-4 in SEC competition.
The Tide began doubles play by getting a win on court one from the No. 17-ranked pair in the country in senior Mazen Osama and sophomore Patrick Kaukovalta after they defeated No. 75 Sandkaulen/Krljevic, 6-1. On court two, both sides battled back-and-forth when juniors Alexey Nesterov and Zhe Zhou pulled out the 7-5 victory over Wilson/Fallert to clinch the doubles point.
Sophomore Jeremy Gschwendtner continued his hot streak in singles play after cruising to the 6-0, 6-0, win to extend the Tide lead to 2-0. Gschwendtner is 10-1 overall and 5-0 in SEC singles play in his first year of collegiate tennis. Shortly after, Zhou took care of business on court five, 6-2, 6-2, to make it 3-0. Moments later, the Rebels responded with a win on court two, as UA still held the 3-1 advantage.
Ole Miss trimmed the deficit in half when it earned a win on court one to make it 3-2. The Rebels added another victory on court three, before closing out the match, 4-3, on court two.
Alabama is at Auburn on Friday.
Alabama Results
Doubles
- No. 17 Osama/Kaukovalta def. No. 75 Sandkaulen/Kraljevic, 6-1
- Nesterov/Zhou def. Wilson/Fallert, 7-5
- Kranic/Reynolds vs. Roberto/Ortiz, 6-5, unf.
Singles
- No. 73 Tim Sandkaulen def. No. 36 Mazen Osama, 6-2, 7-6(4)
- Filip Kraljevic def. Edson Ortiz, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
- Fabian Fallert def. Patrick Kaukovalta, 3-6, 6-0, 6-3
- Karlo Kranic def. Riccardo Roberto, 6-1, 6-2
- Zhe Zhou def. Simon Junk, 6-2, 6-2
- Jeremy Gschwendtner def. Jan Soren Hain, 6-0, 6-0
