Alabama Closes Homestand Against No. 3 Florida, No. 9 South Carolina and UAB

Friday, April 8

Tuscaloosa, Ala.

6 P.M. CT

Alabama

Florida

Alabama Closes Homestand Against No. 3 Florida, No. 9 South Carolina and UAB

4/7/2022 1:44:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Cracked Racquets Watch/Live Scoring

The trio of matches will be the final contests at the Alabama Tennis Stadium for the men's team

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. –– The Alabama men's tennis team concludes its homestand this weekend, hosting two top-10 Southeastern Conference opponents in No. 3 Florida and No. 9 South Carolina at the Alabama Tennis Stadium. The Crimson Tide opens the weekend against third-ranked Florida at 6 p.m. CT, before welcoming ninth-ranked South Carolina to the Alabama Tennis Stadium on Sunday for Senior Day. UA will face UAB for the second time this season at 6 p.m. CT on Sunday.

The Matches

Florida
Date: Friday, April 8
Time: 6 p.m. CT
Venue: Alabama Tennis Stadium

South Carolina:
Date: Sunday, April 10
Time: 1 p.m. CT
Venue: Alabama Tennis Stadium

UAB:
Date: Sunday, April 10
Time: 6 p.m. CT
Venue: Alabama Tennis Stadium

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

Cracked Racquets

Friday's match will be part of Cracked Racquets' Redzone Broadcast of SEC competition
The broadcast is set to run for Friday SEC and non-conference matchups throughout the regular season
In conjunction with the live broadcasts of matches, Cracked Racquets will produce a weekly SEC focused show to highlight upcoming events and recap matches from the week prior

Senior Day

The Crimson Tide will recognize two players on Sunday as part of its Senior Day ceremony
The ceremony for Juan Martin and Patrick Kaukovalta will be held before doubles
Kaukovalta made history when he advanced to the finals at the 2019 NCAA Doubles National Championships, finishing as the runner-up and earning All-America honors
He ended that season tied for the highest doubles ranking in program history at No. 4 with partner Mazen Osama
A transfer from TCU, Martin has been a leader on and off the court, tying for the second-best doubles record this season
Martin, along with partner Filip Planinsek, highlighted the fall, earning an automatic berth to the 2021 ITA National Fall Championships after the duo won the ITA Southern Regional Doubles Draw

The Tide

Filip Planinsek moved up to 60^th in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association singles rankings after winning three of his last five matches, which included ranked wins over Vanderbilt's No. 44-ranked George Harwell and Arkansas' No. 107-ranked Alex Reco
Planinsek and German Samofalov continue to hold a top-50 ranking in singles as the two rank 48^th
UA will play its ninth and 10^th ranked top-25 opponent this season as the Tide welcomes No. 3 Florida and No. 9 South Carolina to Tuscaloosa
Alabama (7-16, 0-8 SEC) is coming off a recent win after defeating Tennessee Tech 6-1 on Sunday

Scouting Florida

Florida enters the weekend 17-2 overall and 9-0 in conference play
The Gators dropped this week to No. 3 after moving up to No. 1 last week
Ben Shelton is the top-ranked singles player in the country, dropping just three matches this season at the No. 1 spot
Additionally, Sam Riffice ranks 26^th, Duarte Vale ranks 108^th, Joshua Goodger ranks 117^th, Mattias Siimar ranks 120^th and Andres Andrade ranks 125^th in singles
Doubles partners Riffice and Shelton rank 22^nd, Aadrade and Siimar rank 25^th and Abedallah Shelbayh and Siimar rank 45^th
Florida is coming off of three ranked wins, defeating then-ranked No. 55 Arkansas, then-ranked No. 38 LSU and then-ranked Vanderbilt

Looking at South Carolina

South Carolina moved up a spot to No. 9 after taking a 6-1 decision against then-No. 41 Vanderbilt and a 4-3 victory over then-No. 12 Kentucky last weekend
The Gamecocks are 18-5 this season and 7-2 in the SEC
The two teams have held an even pace with three of the last five matches being decided by a 4-3 score and the other two going 4-2 and 5-2
Alabama leads the all-time series 24-20 with the team's last win coming in a 4-3 victory during the 2020 season
Daniel Rodrigues leads the team in singles, ranking third nationally, while Toby Samuel ranks 66^th
In doubles, Rodrigues and Connor Thomson are the 28^th ranked team as Rodrigues and Beau Pelletier rank 62^nd

UAB's Return

This is the second meeting this season between the two teams
Alabama faced UAB on Feb. 5, blanking the Blazers 7-0 in the match
UA is 24-4 all-time against UAB including this year's win
UAB enters the match with a 7-12 record, suffering a recent loss to Alabama State
Michal Lusovsky is 12-6 at the No. 1 singles spot to lead the team in individual victories this year
In doubles, Nikola Puric and Roman Postolka lead the team with six wins, with all six victories coming at No. 3 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.

– UA –