Alabama men’s tennis closed its fall season Monday by winning the doubles and singles tournaments, highlighted by junior Filip Planinsek.
Planinsek won not only the doubles tournament, but also the singles tournament at the TuscaBama UTR event this weekend. Planinsek won the doubles tournament with freshman partner Andrii Zimnokh.
The duo captured its second title as partners. The first title for the partners came back Oct. 17 when the pair won the championship at the ITA Southern Regional tournament in Auburn.
“We tried different combinations during practice and we have liked playing together,” Zimnokh said. The duo cruised to a 6-0 victory over Karna Palaniappan and Palaniappan Sethu on the first day of the tournament before defeating University of West Alabama’s Lucas Hammond and Miguel Gamborino 6-3 in the quarterfinals.
Planinsek and Zimnokh finished the second day beating Alabama A&M’s Vence N’Tcha and Kai Cowcher 6-2 in the semifinals. The victory in the semifinals set up an all-Alabama matchup in the finals. The duo faced off against sophomores Yair Sarouk and Matias Ponce De Leon and took a 6-3 victory in the finals match.
In the singles tournament, Alabama controlled the tournament, landing five players out of eight in the quarterfinals and three players out of four in the semifinals, leading to an all-Alabama finals match once again.
In the end, Planinsek captured the singles championship to close out the season. Along the way to the title, Planinsek faced off against two of his teammates, including sophomore Roan Jones in the quarterfinals (6-1, 6-2).
Jones won both his matches on the first day of the event, taking down Alabama A&M’s Lebogang Mashego (6-1, 6-2) in the first round and then beating the University of Montevallo’s Samuel Maia (6-2, 6-3) in the round of 32.
Jones followed up his two victories from the first day with a victory over Hammond (6-2, 6-0) in the round of 16 to advance to the quarterfinals, where he eventually was defeated by teammate Planinsek (6-1, 6-2).
Jones credited his growing confidence and abilities to his performances in singles matches.
“I’ve got more confidence coming to the net and I have improved on closing and I think I am hitting my forearm well indoors,” Jones said.
Jones’ run to the quarterfinals in the TuscaBama UTR followed an impressive performance last week, where he won all three singles matches he played at the Georgia Tech Invitational.
“I feel like I can be more aggressive from the start of the season and go to the net more without relying on an opponent’s error,” Jones said.
Head coach George Husack said he was pleased with his players’ performances throughout the tournament.
“I’ve been impressed with how they are prepared each day and how they are competing,” Husack said. “What has been important up to this point is being very clear as to what they are trying to do in competitions.”
As the team goes into the offseason and prepares for the spring season, Husack emphasized team training.
“Now it is about what are you going to do from this point forward until we start again in the spring,” Husack said. “They’re disciplined enough and they’re driven enough to continue training not only now but during the holiday break as well.”
Jones talked about his goals as a player heading into the break and spring season.
“I think going into spring, I need to keep my intensity up throughout and staying levelheaded when things aren’t going well,” Jones said. “I hope to improve being able to close out from the front because last spring I let stuff go.”
Alabama will return for its spring season in January.
