Net News - Jan. 15
1/15/2017 9:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Hello from Alabama Tennis!
Welcome back to another exciting season of college tennis. The Tide is ready to roll and the main event gets started this Monday, January 16. We've got a challenging doubleheader with 10-time consecutive Southern Conference champion East Tennessee State "bucking" into the Alison Baumgardner Indoor Tennis Facility for a 1:00pm start. In the nightcap, the Bulldogs of Samford will travel down the Interstate for a 6:00pm showdown.Â
We've had a very solid training week leading up to this opener and experienced rather drastic turnarounds with the weather too. A week ago there was snow on the ground and Jack Frost was nipping at our nose. This weekend we've had beautiful warm Spring-like weather that makes you wonder whether we will play indoors or outdoors. Answer? Indoors. We will play inside until mid-February in order to prepare for the National Team Indoor Championships held over President's Day weekend.Â
We finished the fall semester on a high note, winning 3 titles at the SEC Coaches Classic – Mazen Osama & Thibault Cancel in singles and Mazen & Spencer Richey in doubles – before breaking for the holidays. My break included a fun family trip to Disney and then an excursion to the Southwest to visit family and recruit.
The team welcomed two newcomers to the program in Edson Ortiz (Chihuahua, Mexico) and Zhe Zhou (Tianjin, China) who arrived at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport a couple of days before practice began. The "new kids on the block" will add strength and depth to our lineup and we are both fortunate and excited to have them part of the Alabama Tennis family.
We will have something new this year for our home matches – the featured Fathead of the Week. At each home match, a men's player will be featured with a pair of giant Fatheads as well as player buttons free to fans to take and pin on their shirts, bags or hats. One of the Fatheads will be awarded to the rowdiest fan at the end of the match. We will have a Q&A with the featured player in the match program and on our website, as well as post a variety of pictures on social media. Here's the Fathead schedule:
Jan. 16 vs. ETSU & Samford – Thibault Cancel
Feb. 3 vs. Texas Tech – Mazen Osama
Feb. 5 vs. Clemson – Big Al
Mar. 3 vs. Ole Miss – Langford Hills
Mar. 5 vs. Arkansas – Spencer Richey
Mar. 17 vs. Texas A&M – Zhe Zhou
Mar. 19 vs. LSU – Edson Ortiz
Mar. 30 vs. Florida – Alexey Nesterov
Apr. 1 vs. South Carolina & Jackson State – Hayes Brewer & Ritchie Kruunenberg Â
We have a slew of promotions this home season including our tasty Crimson Racket Club Cookouts on Mar. 3 (Ole Miss) & Apr. 1 (South Carolina), Alabama Kids Day on Feb. 5 (Clemson) and Taco Mama Nights on Feb. 3 (Texas Tech) and Mar. 30 (Florida). Giveaways this season include schedule magnets, headbands, sweatbands, throwback ballcaps and a racket package for our final home match. Here's a link to our season promotional schedule:
We look forward to seeing you on Opening Day, and together, celebrating an exciting season of Alabama Tennis.Â
Roll Tide!
George
Players Mentioned
