Alabama Opens SEC Tournament Against Vanderbilt Wednesday

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. –– The Alabama men's tennis team will face Vanderbilt on Wednesday at 10 a.m. CT in the opening round of the men's Southeastern Conference Tennis Tournament, hosted at Georgia's Magill Tennis Complex.

The Match

Vanderbilt:
Date: Wednesday, April 20
Time: 10 a.m. CT
Location: Athens, Ga.
Venue: Magill Tennis Complex

How to Follow

Links to live scoring and video streams will be available at RollTide.com. Updates will be provided on the team's Twitter account, @AlabamaMTN

The SEC Tournament

The Crimson Tide (8-20, 0-12 SEC) will compete as the 13^th seed in the tournament and will face 12^th-seeded Vanderbilt (14-11, 2-10 SEC) in the opening round
Georgia will serve as host for the men's conference championships with matches being played at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex
The tournament begins Wednesday, April 20 and runs through Sunday, April 24 with the championship match being played at 1 p.m. CT
The winner between Alabama and Vanderbilt will compete Thursday at 2 p.m. CT against fifth-seeded Tennessee

A Look at Alabama

Freshman Filip Planinsek is the lone SEC freshman ranked in singles, pacing the conference as the 36^th ranked player nationally, and is one of just four conference freshmen ranked in doubles action coming in at No. 52 with German Samofalov
Planinsek holds a team-leading 20 singles wins this season, 13 while playing at UA's No. 1, and a team-leading 21 doubles wins, 15 at the No. 1 spot
The Tide is coming off a tough season that featured 12 top-25 ranked opponents, including four top-15 ranked teams in its last five matches with No. 3 Florida, No. 9 South Carolina, No. 5 Tennessee and No. 11 Georgia, respectively
Planinsek's upset win over No. 1 ranked Ben Shelton from Florida highlighted that span as he defeated the top-ranked singles player in three sets
Additional, Planinsek forced a second set tiebreaker against third-ranked Daniel Rodrigues from South Carolina, but fell 7-5 in the tiebreak to lose in straight sets
Enzo Aguiard capped the regular season with a 7-5, 7-5 win over 79^th ranked Tristan McCormick from Georgia after he and Juan Martin upset the 27^th-ranked duo of Trent Bryde and Philip Henning in doubles
Alabama's No. 1 doubles team of Planinsek and Patrick Kaukovalta had a strong finish, winning seven of their last 10 matches at the No. 1 spot, including a ranked win over Georgia's 63^rd ranked doubles team of Tristan McCormick and Hamish Stewart

The Last Meeting

The two teams last met on March 27 in Nashville, Tenn.
Vanderbilt opened that match with a 2-0 start after taking the doubles point and winning at No. 6 singles
Alabama would rally to tie the match at 2-2, then again at 3-3, but the Commodores secured a contested three-set battle on court two for the final point
Despite the loss, Planinsek, ranked 112^th at the time, defeated Vandy's Geroge Harwell, ranked 44^th at the time, in a 6-1, 6-4 victory at the top of the ladder
Kaukovalta captured a 0-6, 6-0, 6-2 win at No. 4 singles against Max Freeman and Juan Martin captured a 6-2, 6-4 win over Jeremie Casabon at No. 5 singles

Scouting Vanderbilt

The Commodores have lost their last five matches, which includes three consecutive matches against top-10 opponents in then-No. 10 South Carolina, then-No. 1 Florida and No. 5 Tennessee
The team faced Mississippi State and Ole Miss in its last weekend of regular season action, falling 6-1 to the Bulldogs and 5-2 to the Rebels
No. 88 ranked Joubert Klopper has a team-leading 27 singles wins, and is 14-8 while playing at the No. 2 singles spot
Vandy's 31^st ranked and No. 1 singles player George Harwell holds 20 singles wins, second most on the team, and an 11-12 record at the No. 1 spot
In doubles, Michael Ross and Siim Troost rank 67^th with a 17-14 overall record and a 13-8 record at No. 1 doubles

Get all the latest information on the team by following AlabamaMTN on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. General athletic news can also be found at UA_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram and Alabama Athletics on Facebook.

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