Alabama Advances to Second Round of SEC Tournament With 4-3 Win Over Vanderbilt

Wednesday, April 20

Athens, Ga.

10 a.m. CT

Alabama

Vanderbilt

Photo by: Bill Kallenberg

Alabama Advances to Second Round of SEC Tournament With 4-3 Win Over Vanderbilt

4/20/2022 2:14:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

The Crimson Tide captured an exciting 4-3 victory over the Commodores Wednesday to advance to the second round of the SEC Tournament

ATHENS, Ga. –– The 13^th-seeded Alabama men's tennis team won four singles matches Wednesday in the opening round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament at Georgia's Magill Tennis Complex to claim a 4-3 decision over 12^th-seeded Vanderbilt and advance to the second round of the tournament.

Graduate transfer Juan Martin, came-from-behind on court five to take a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win for the deciding point and the team victory. Prior to the win from Martin, 32^nd-ranked Filip Planinsek won in straight sets against 35^th-ranked George Harwell on court one, Enzo Aguiard clinched a second-set tiebreaker to defeat 105^th-ranked Joubert Klopper on court two and German Samofalov battled through three sets to defeat Siim Troost on court four.

Come-from-behind win?

Juan Martin goes 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 for the Alabama WIN#RollTide | #ThatsBama pic.twitter.com/ZdfZV1iImm
— Alabama Men's Tennis (@AlabamaMTN) April 20, 2022

From Head Coach George Husack

"To have Juan (Martin) in a situation to clinch a match in what could have been his last match is very special. Our guys are very young and have been fighting all year. There's been no knock down rule after a tough weekend of losses. It's very special to have this for them because they've gotten better every weekend. They've never gone away despite whatever seed or number of losses we've had all year."

The Match

Both teams opened the match strong, swapping points on all three doubles courts but the Commodores found some late momentum to take both courts one and three, respectively, at 6-4 for the opening point
Vanderbilt opened singles action with a win on court three to move ahead 2-0 in the match
No. 32 ranked Planinsek put Alabama on the board with mirroring 6-3 decisions at No. 1 for a straight set victory over No. 35 ranked Harwell
After trailing 6-5 in the second set, Aguiard battled to take the next game and the tiebreaker on court two to defeat 105^th-ranked Klopper 6-4, 7-6 (4) to even the overall match score
Samofalov followed moments later with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Siim Troost on court four to give Alabama the lead but Vanderbilt's three set win on court six forced the two teams into a 3-3 tie
Martin fell in his opening set, 6-3, to Marcus Ferreira but the Alabama graduate student came back to take sets two and three 6-4, 6-4 to win at No. 5 singles and secure the victory for the Crimson Tide

From Juan Martin

"Every match was very tight, very close. So, I knew that I had to stay in there and try to fight for the guys and just try my best to stay in the match. I wasn't feeling great or playing very well but got the win and I'm happy with it. Now, just enjoy the win for a couple hours and get ready, recover and get a good night's sleep."

Alabama advances to the second round of the tournament where it will face fifth-seeded Tennessee
First serve is schedule for Thursday at 2 p.m. CT at the Georgia's Magill Tennis Complex

Results

Doubles:

#80 Siim Troost/Macsen Sisam (Vandy) def. #53 Filip Planinsek/Patrick Kaukovalta (UA) 6-4
Enzo Aguiard/Juan Martin (UA) vs. George Harwell/Joubert Klopper (Vandy) 5-4, unfinished
Michael Ross/Jeremie Casabon (Vandy) def. German Samofalov/Joao Ferreira (UA) 6-4

Order of Finish (1,3)

Singles:

#32 Filip Planinsek (UA) def. #35 George Harwell (Vandy) 6-3, 6-3
Enzo Aguiard (UA) def. #105 Joubert Klopper (Vandy) 6-4, 7-6 (4)
Max Freeman (Vandy) def. Patrick Kaukovalta (UA) 6-1, 6-4
German Samofalov (UA) def. Siim Troost (Vandy) 6-1, 4-6, 6-4
Juan Martin (UA) def. Marcus Ferreira (Vandy) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
Macsen Sisam (Vandy) def. Zach Foster (UA) 0-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2

Order of Finish (3,1,2,4,6,5)

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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