Alabama Men’s Tennis Bests No. 21 Georgia for the First Time Since 2003 in Epic 4-2 Battle

Friday, April 6

Tuscaloosa, Ala.

6 p.m. CT

Alabama

#21 Georgia

Alabama Men’s Tennis Bests No. 21 Georgia for the First Time Since 2003 in Epic 4-2 Battle

4/6/2018 9:37:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score Photo Gallery Match Results (PDF)

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama men's tennis team earned a historic win over No. 21 Georgia, 4-2, snapping a 15-match losing streak to UGA, inside the Roberta Alison Baumgardner Indoor Tennis Facility on Friday night. The Crimson Tide (16-8, 2-7 SEC) last defeated the Bulldogs (10-9, 3-7 SEC) on March 9, 2003 before Friday night's victory.

The Tide took down the defending SEC Champions for only the ninth time in program history in 65 tries. The win also marks the first time this season that UA has defeated a Top 25 opponent.

"I think it was exciting, very exciting and I'm so happy for the guys," head coach George Husack said. "We started off red-hot to begin the season, and we've taken some lumps since then and when you take those lumps sometimes it impacts your belief. Going into today's match I felt really great about where we were at, I think they were tired of taking the lumps and they stood up and fought. It was a super moment for us."

Alabama began the night with the doubles point after the No. 68-ranked pair in the country in junior Mazen Osama and sophomore Edson Ortiz cruised past Montgomery/Ponwith, 6-2 on Court 1. The sophomore duo Thibault Cancel and Alexey Nesterov followed up with a win of their own on Court 2, defeating Zielinski/Phillips, 6-4, to clinch the doubles point and put the Tide up 1-0.

In singles action, sophomore Zhe Zhou dominated on Court 6 by powering past Alex Phillips, 6-1, 6-2 to extend the Alabama advantage to 2-0. Moments later, Cancel fell to No. 27 Jan Zielinski, 6-2, 6-4 as UA still held the 2-1 edge.

Georgia tied things up at 2-2 when Robert Loeb bested freshman Patrick Kaukovalta, 7-6 (4), 6-3. Just seconds later, No. 50 Osama took down his third nationally-ranked opponent in his last four matches after disposing of No. 19 Wayne Montgomery, 7-5, 6-3, to give Alabama the 3-2 lead.

Later on Nesterov clinched the match for the Tide for the first time this season. The Moscow, Russia, native was tied with Alex Diaz 2-2 in the third set before he closed strong, winning the last four games to clinch his singles match, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, and the victory for Alabama.

Next up, the Crimson Tide will finish out its regular season home slate on Sunday, April 8 against No. 24 Tennessee at the Alabama Tennis Stadium. The match is set to begin at 1 p.m. CT.

Alabama Results:

Singles vs. Georgia:

No. 50 Mazen Osama def. No. 19 Wayne Montgomery, 7-5, 6-3

No. 27 Jan Zielinski def. Thibault Cancel, 6-2, 6-4

No. 88 Nathan Ponwith vs. Edson Ortiz, 7-5, 2-6, 2-1, unf.

Robert Loeb def. Patrick Kaukovalta, 7-6 (4), 6-3

Alexey Nesterov def. Alex Diaz, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2

Zhe Zhou def. Alex Phillips, 6-1, 6-2

Order of Finish: 6, 2, 4, 1, 5

Doubles vs. Georgia:

No. 68 Ortiz/Osama def. Montgomery/Ponwith, 6-2

Cancel/Nesterov def. Zielinski/Phillips, 6-4

Zhou/Kaukovalta vs. Loeb/Diaz, 5-5, unf.

Order of Finish: 1, 2

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