The Tennis Tigers remain undefeated at home

AUBURN, Ala. Auburn remained undefeated at home in men’s tennis at the Yarbrough Tennis Center, defeating Georgia Tech 5-2 and College of Charleston 6-1.

“I saw the whole team that was ready to fight today,” the coach Bobby Reynolds said. “After another tough game last weekend, coming back to play Georgia Tech outside of our first road game, our guys performed really well. That’s what I’ve been telling them — we’ve got to keep playing as a unit. And at the end of the day, we’ve got to get four points somewhere, right?

“It doesn’t matter from week to week who gets the points and who shines. I thought everybody came in today and was ready to go. You could tell it from those who were on the field and those who were off the field.”

Against Georgia Tech, the singles matches came back and forth in a contest for the No. 2 spot. of Auburn Jan Galka and Billy Blaydes came from behind to tie it 3-3, 4-4, 5-5 and 6-6; The Tiger duo took a 6-3 lead in the tiebreaker before winning the tiebreaker 7-5 to give Auburn the team double point.

Tyler Stice and Alejandro Moreno posted their third win of the spring season with a 6-1 victory over GT’s Brandon McKinney and Robert Bauer at No. 3 doubles.

In singles, Auburn took the first set in four of the six matches. Tiger freshman Billy Blaydes was the first to put a team point on the scoreboard with a 6-1, 6-3 sixth-court victory over Robert Bauer, and Jan Galka survived on four courts with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Rohan Sachdev to put Auburn up 3-1. It was Galka 40^th career singles win at Auburn.

Raul Dobai beat the Tigers team with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Elias Shokiv on court five and freshman Alejandro Morenodown 7-2 in a third-set tie against GT’s Keshav Chopra, never lost focus and reeled off seven straight points for a 9-7 lead and eventual 11-9 advantage in a 7-5, 3-6, 1 -0 win.

In the nightcap with the College of Charleston, the Tigers swept the doubles competition. Tyler Stice and Will Nolan went 6-1 on court three to lead the action, with wins over Auburn tandems Galka and Blaydes (6-1) and Find Murgett and Raul Dobai (6-2) grabbed the team’s double point.

In singles, Auburn won the first five sets over Charleston and Billy Blaydes, Raul Dobai and Alejandro Moreno posted a singles victory to clinch the match for the Tigers. Spencer Gray and Tyler Stice added singles wins after team match ends.

“We’re back indoors with ODU (Friday) and then back here at Wisconsin Sunday, so we’ve got to make sure we continue to capitalize on opportunities,” Reynolds said. “We’ve got to seize opportunities and be aggressive. We’ve got to do an even better job of making the first serve and being impactful on the first ball after the serve, especially indoors. That’s going to be a focus that we’re going to continue to work on. But I want our guys to enjoy these wins; we needed this success and it adds to the excitement for the week ahead.”

Auburn is now 5-2 on the spring season. Georgia Tech is 6-3 and College of Charleston is 0-2. Coach Bobby Reynolds recorded his 75th career victory at Auburn in a win over Georgia Tech.

Auburn visits Old Dominion on Friday in a morning game. The Tigers are back at home next Sunday for their final home match before SEC competition begins, hosting Wisconsin at noon at the Yarbrough Tennis Center (1717 Richland Road, Auburn). Admission is free.

Auburn 5, Georgia Tech 2

Singles

#72 Andres Martin (GT) def. #66 Tyler Stice (AU) 6-2, 6-1
Marcus McDaniel (GT) def. #110 Will Nolan (AU) 6-3, 3-6, 7-5
Alejandro Moreno (AU) def. Keshav Chopra (GT) 7-5, 3-6, 1-0 (11-9)
Jan Galka (AU) def. Rohan Sachdev (GT) 6-2, 6-2
Raul Dobai (AU) def. Elias Shokry (GT) 7-5, 6-3
Billy Blaydes (AU) def. Robert Bauer (GT) 6-1, 6-3

Double up

Martin/McDaniel (GT) def. Find Murgett/Dubai (AU) 6-0
folder/Billy Blaydes (AU) def. Shokry/Chopra (GT) 7-6 (7-5)
Stice/Moreno (AU) def. Brandon McKinney/Bauer (GT) 6-1

Match time: 3:13; Order of finish: Doubles: 1,3,2; Singles: 6,1,4,5,3,2; Official: Donna Jerome

Auburn 6, College of Charleston 1

Singles

#66 Tyler Stice (AU) def. Mattia Bernardi (CC) 6-1, 6-2
Zac Larke (CC) def. #110 Will Nolan (AU) 6-4, 7-6 (7-4)
Alejandro Moreno (AU) def. Robby Krick (CC) 6-2, 6-1
Raul Dobai (AU) def. Matias Gaedechens (CC) 6-3, 6-1
Billy Blaydes (AU) def. Johnny Wang (CC) 6-2, 6-1
Spencer Gray (AU) def. Noah Borges (CC) 6-2, 6-2

Double up

Murgett/Dubai (AU) def. Bernardi/Krick (CC) 6-2
folder/Billy Blaydes (AU) def. Z. Larke/Wang (CC) 6-1
Stice/Nolan (AU) def. Juan Diego Rojas/Jordyn Larke (CC) 6-1

Match time: 2:23; Order of finish: Doubles: 3,2,1; Singles: 5,4,3,6,1,2; Official: Donna Jerome