Net News - Feb. 20
2/20/2020 11:11:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Hello from our state's capital – Montgomery, Alabama!
After a well-deserved weekend off for the guys, a new week is upon us with our next round of competition taking place just a couple hours south of campus in Montgomery, Alabama. We're here along with our women's team to participate in the 72nd playing of the Blue Gray National Tennis Classic. The 2-day event is held at Lagoon Park and features 16 total teams – 8 men, 8 women – competing in 3 dual matches in a 48-hour period (Friday, February 21 & Saturday, February 22). Before I provide more info on the Blue Gray, let me quickly review our last match against Tulsa a couple of weeks ago.
The Golden Hurricane twisted south to Tuscaloosa to face us in our last scheduled indoor match with six returning lettermen and three freshmen. Winners of 16 regular season conference titles and qualifiers of 18 NCAA team championships, Tulsa presented a very good challenge for our squad as well as an opportunity to close out action in the Roberta Alison Baumgardner Indoor Tennis Facility on a high note. Our very own Tina Thomas, aka Mrs. T, struck the honorary first serve with precision and was then given a rose by each of our players to thank her for all she has done for the Alabama Tennis. What an incredibly dedicated and giving individual that has impacted our facility and program. A couple of new doubles pairings were inserted in our starting lineup with Patrick Kaukovalta and Zhe Zhou teaming up as well as Sam Fischer and Alexey Nesterov. Longtime friends Edson Ortiz and Marcelo Sepulveda Garza remained together as they did in Minnesota. After a tight match at the top spot gave the visiting team a leg up towards the doubles point, El Toro (Edson) and El Gusano (Marcelo) evened things with a come-from-behind victory at #2. Alexey and Sam were pushed to a tiebreaker in the clinching contest and ultimately served, returned and volleyed their way to a 7-2 breaker win and a 1-0 lead for us. Point Bama! Roll Tide!
I was really impressed by our fast start in singles as we captured four first sets with purposeful execution and plenty of aggressive play. Tulsa struck the ball hard and pushed us, however, our guys' focus was crystal clear even when catching a sniff or two of the freshly grilled hamburgers and hot dogs courtesy of the Crimson Racket Club (Many, many thanks to Colin Martin, Peter Magnusson, Alan Cunningham and the Civinettes for their tireless help with the cookout). Patrick was first off dismantling his Hurricane with powerful 1st serves and strong return games with produced many first strike opportunities. Zhe followed suit on his court and Edson was relentless with his pursuit of making his opponent as uncomfortable and unbalanced as possible. Alexey also poured in several successful aggressive plays while Riccardo Roberto finished off the evening with a gutsy and well earned 3-set victory. Forza Riky and Match Bama! Roll Tide!
We continued to train hard the following week by ratcheting up the intensity on court and in fitness with strength coach Ashton McCleod. We only have one full weekend off during the season and what better time to do it before the 3 match in 2-day affair in Montgomery…but not before challenging the guys' focus, sense of urgency and execution before taking a break over Valentine's Day weekend. So that leads us to the 72nd Blue Gray National Tennis Classic. For more than seventy years, some of the finest tennis players in the world have come to Montgomery in early spring to do battle. How did this city come to host one of the most prestigious tournaments in the country? The answer lies in "Mr. Tennis"– Jack Bushman. In 1949, Mr. Bushman, a Montgomery resident, was the President of the Southern Lawn Tennis Association. He wanted to tie-in a world class tournament to the prestigious Blue Gray football classic. He envisioned starting an event similar to the world renowned Sugar Bowl junior tennis tournament that was played in conjunction with the Sugar Bowl football game. He decided, however, that the tournament should feature top college players rather than juniors. Mr. Bushman had been the captain of his tennis team at Louisiana State University and his memories of the excitement and color of college tennis was no rooted deeply with his decision.
For the first 30 years, the Blue Gray tournament was an individual contest rather than the present day team competition. In the beginning, the tournament was held at The Montgomery Country Club. In 1969, the site was moved to Huntingdon College for a few years until it was moved to the present locations of Lagoon Park and O'Conner Tennis Centers. During the time of individual competition, some of the finest college players in the country came to Montgomery to play the Blue Gray, many of whom went onto become some of the top professional players in the world. A brief list of names would include Stan Smith, Tony Trabert, Barry McKay, Chuck McKinley, Charlie Pasarell, Tim and Tom Gullickson, Kevin Curren, Steve Denton and Vince Van Patten.
The tournament continued to bring in top players such as exhibition matches by Pancho Gonzalez, Frankie Parker, Jack Kramer, and Bobby Riggs. In 1983, Mr. Bushman went to the NCAA Championships and approached top college coaches about the possibility of changing the format to a team competition. The coaches liked the idea of playing in a team tournament to prepare them for the season ending NCAA team event. The tournament was then reborn as a team event and remains so today.
Perhaps the most unique feature of the Blue Gray is the southern hospitality it offers. Tennis fans across Montgomery open up their homes and keep the players throughout the tournament. Life-long friendships have developed between players and host families. Our team has been fortunate to have had the same housing families during my eight seasons at Alabama. I'd like to recognize and thank Brooks and Jennifer Seale, Spud and Nancy Seale, Brooke and Melissa Lawson, Will and Amy Chapman, and a new family in the mix this year, Noble and Stuart Yelverton. Roll Tide and many thanks to all of you!
Our BG journey begins with Texas Tech on Friday at 10:30 am. Oddly enough the 2019 Blue Gray ended with us playing Texas Tech. The matches on Friday were scheduled for 9:00am but due to the wet weather all day on Thursday, we pushed the start time later. We will also play the opening round of matches with a singles first format and doubles will only be played if the contest is knotted at 3-3 after singles. We will then start a match #2 with doubles only at the end of the afternoon. On Saturday we will finish match #2 with the singles portion before taking a break and then playing a match #3 in the midday. So there's lots of tennis in a two-day period that features Alabama, Arizona, Auburn, Fresno State, Middle Tennessee State, Ole Miss, Princeton and Texas Tech. On the women's side the teams include Alabama, Arizona, Auburn, Princeton, South Alabama, SMU, Wake Forest and Yale.
So come down to Lagoon Park where the atmosphere is fun and festive while the tennis is simply terrific. Mr. Bushman's legacy and spirit live on in this great sporting event. If you can't make it, live scoring is available at www.bluegraytennis.com. Here's to another exciting BG and building lasting relationships along the way.
Roll Tide,
George
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