Hello Again From Alabama Tennis,

Opening Day has arrived and with it plenty of excitement, anticipation and spirit. Preparation for this season began last summer and continued through the fall semester with plenty of work done by players and coaches on and off the tennis court. We began the academic year with six players – two newcomers in Sam Fischer (Brentwood, TN) and Grant Stuckey (Charlotte, NC), as well as the returning sophomore group of Thibault Cancel (Toulouse, France), Alexey Nesterov (Moscow, Russian), Edson Ortiz (Chihuahua, Mexico) and Zhe Zhou (Tianjin, China). This group of players set a high standard while training on the court, in the weight room and in the classroom. They also competed in a total of nine tournaments from August to November with “tour stops” in Malibu, California, Nashville, Tennessee, Houston, Texas, Birmingham, Alabama, Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Pensacola, Florida. All in all, it was a highly successful fall in terms of making progress, building confidence, gaining valuable playing experience, adding muscle and stamina, creating a close bond and trust with each other, sharing aches/pain/relaxation/laughs and performing extremely well in school (3.70 team gpa).

Fast forward through the holiday break and to the early parts of January 2018 where we then welcomed four more players. Junior Mazen Osama (Cairo, Egypt) returned to campus after spending a semester away in his home country competing in more than a dozen professional tennis tournaments. He re-established an ATP singles ranking of #907 (career-high is #473) and certainly got his fill of the “pro life” while being able to see family and friends during his 5-month journey. It’s great to have our only upperclassman back as we are all excited to see what his junior year brings. We also welcomed Patrick Kaukovalta (Helsinki, Finland), Riccardo Roberto (Padova, Italy) and Jeremy Gschwendtner (London, England).

The season begins this weekend with the first four of seventeen home matches in 2018. Jackson State travels over from Jackson, Mississippi for a very rare and unique doubleheader on Saturday. We will play the Tigers at 11am and 4pm but the uniqueness of the event will include having both the men and women compete at the same time. Yes, I wrote that right, as both the men’s and women’s teams will use three courts for doubles and singles. We will have FREE pizza, a bounce house for the kids and a display of more than 80 free-hand drawings of Big Al from the Rock Quarry 3rd grade class. This was a joint project between RQE and Alabama Tennis that begin last semester.

We will then return to the courts on Monday, January 15 for another doubleheader against UAB at 11am and The Citadel at 4pm. We will have a FREE continental breakfast provided by the Hampton Inn Tuscaloosa – University for all fans at the UAB match UAB returns nearly all of their starting lineup from a year ago, while The Citadel Bulldogs coached by the legendary Chuck Kriese will bring all of their fight and grit to the Capstone. The weekend will definitely provide a super challenge for this new-look, new-attitude Crimson Tide team. We will take each opportunity head on as the season culminates at the SEC Tennis Championships April 25-29 held here in Tuscaloosa.

One important note is that all men’s matches will be played at the Roberta Alison Baumgardner Indoor Tennis Facility, regardless of weather, through the San Diego State/Lipscomb match on Sunday, February 11. If you haven’t seen a match indoors then I invite you to join us at this special place that we call home for the first third of the season. We will then start the outdoor season at the Alabama Tennis Stadium on Friday, March 2 against the Commodores of Vanderbilt (SEC Opener).

Lastly, Crimson Racket Club memberships are available to all fans. The CRC is the official booster club of Alabama Tennis and provides a fun way to integrate our student-athletes with the Tuscaloosa tennis community. It also gives fans an opportunity to enjoy a match while taking in the benefits of our hospitality room which is stocked with drinks and snacks at all home matches. So click here and join today!

Coach Robbie (Weiss), Coach Glen (Fanelli) and I are excited to see you soon at the courts.

Roll Tide!

George