The No. 42 ranked Crimson Tide men’s tennis team celebrated a SEC win on the road Friday over Arkansas, 4-3, and later met a tough 5-2 loss against No. 30 LSU this past Sunday in Baton Rouge, La.
Though Alabama’s Ricky Doverspike and Jarry Botha won the first doubles match over their Razorback counterparts 8-3. Arkansas seized the doubles point via two wins over Tide pairs Vikram Reddy and Michael Thompson, 8-6, and Trey Walston and Daniil Proskura, 8-6.
“We dug ourselves a hole by losing in the doubles,” head coach Billy Pate said. “It got heated before the intermission and we had a bit of a challenge to answer when we came back out. The guys came back to really fight for those singles points.”
The game changed in singles when Arkansas delivered the first point, as Chris Nott topped Doverspike 6-0, 6-4. Alabama fired back, earning four consecutive points thanks to Jarryd Botha’s 6-1, 6-4 triumph over Nikolas Zogaj, Thompson’s 6-4, 6-1 win and Proskura’s victory over Matt Hogan 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in a clench.
That important fourth point came from Reddy in a three set clash 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 over Arkansas’ Gregoire Lehmann, securing Alabama’s win. Arkansas kept fighting as it gained just one more win over the Tide on court six.
“The team [Alabama] got lucky to escape with those wins,” junior Doverspike said. “The conditions were pretty tough, it was pretty windy out there with a fair amount of dust but we all went after our matches pretty well.”
On Sunday, the Tigers took the doubles point early on in the match, as Doverspike and Botha fell to LSU’s Sebastian Carlsson and Neal Skupski, 8-5. Soon after, duo Walston and Proskura earned back favor for the Tide by taking Julien Gauthier and Olivier Borsos 8-6.
It was the Tigers, however, who took the doubles point via an 8-6 win by Roger Anderson and Stefan Szacinski over Alabama’s Reddy and Thompson.
In singles, the Tigers took the first points as well. LSU’s Skupski defeated Proskura right out of the gate 6-1, 6-2, while Botha earned Alabama its first point by besting Szacinski 6-4, 6-2. The Tide found its second point in Reddy’s victorious match against Carlsson, 6-4, 6-4, his first nationally-ranked-opponent win of his Alabama career.
Another favor-switching loss came by way of Carlos Taborga’s fall to Gauthier in the third set of his match, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1. One significant match was Doverspike against Borsos on court one. Doverspike served a strong first set, but he lost momentum in the second. By the third set, Borsos broke out of the standoff with a final point against the Tide 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(8).
“My game at LSU was pretty upsetting,” Doverspike said. “I feel like I should have won. My shots for that match-point probably weren’t the best, but if I would have won, it would have set a whole different pace for the team and got us the point.”
The final match was another battle between Thompson and LSU’s Mark Bowtell. Thompson fell behind in the first set, allowing six points on his side of the net, but came back in the second for an opportunity at a third set. In the heat of the third, Thompson finally gave out and surrendered the Tigers their final point 2-6, 6-3, 5-6.
Alabama stays home this weekend to host No. 25 Mississippi State on Friday.
“It’s definitely hard on the road in the SEC,” Pate said. “Mississippi is a team on the rise and Ole Miss has a top-10 past. We have a challenge on our hands, but it’s definitely better to be at home.”
