The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Men's Tennis Team Opens Fall Season
9/15/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Sept. 15, 2005
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ----- The UAB men's tennis team opens its 2005 fall season this weekend when the Blazers travel to Tuscaloosa to take part in the Crimson Tide Fall Classic.
The tournament, which includes three singles flights, two doubles flights and two flights in the newly-created "1-on-1" doubles format, will run through Sunday at the University of Alabama Varsity Courts.
UAB head coach Derek Tarr, entering his 18th season as the Blazers' head coach, will begin the season with one of his most experienced teams as five seniors are included on the roster. The Blazers finished 15-6 in dual match play last spring.
"I am really looking forward to this season," said Tarr, a former All-American performer at Auburn. "We have a lot of experience with five seniors and all five of them have played a lot of tennis. Our returning guys are anxious to start the season and I think our younger players have worked extremely hard. There has been a lot of healthy competition."
At Tuscaloosa this weekend, the Blazers will have two players competing in the "A" Flight as senior Sebastian Falk, UAB's No. 1 player from last season, takes on Tony Haerle of Rice in his opening round match Friday morning (8:30) while fellow senior Anton Mavrin goes against Raoul Schwark of Minnesota at 9:30 a.m.
The No. 1 seed in the "A" Flight and the tournament's highest-ranked singles player is Robert Searle of Rice.
In the "B" Flight draw, the Blazers' Kristijan Mitrovski meets Renan Silveira of Samford in opening round play (11:00 a.m.) while Andre Maier plays Scott Blackmon of Georgia Tech at 10:30 a.m.
In the "C" Flight, UAB's Ryan Valentine goes against Bryan Dushhock of Samford at 10:00 a.m. while Adrian Tollstam meets Taylor Striplin of Alabama at 10:30. UAB's Kruno Despotovski, who was a standout junior college player at Barton (Kan.) Community College last year, will make his Blazer debut at 8:30 a.m. when he plays Arizona's Peter Zimmer. The fourth UAB player in "C" Flight will be sophomore Johannes Spangenberg who will play Southern Miss' Dylan Mezey.
In "A" Flight doubles, Falk and Maier will team in a first round match against William & Mary's Billy Mulligan and Kavi Sud. In the "B" Flight, the Blazer duo of Despotovski and Valentine received a first round bye and will play top seeded Dominic Pagon and Stephen Ward of William & Mary. Also in the "B" Flight, UAB's Spangenberg and Tollstam will meet the Georgia Tech tandem of Jordan Delass and George Gveslelani.
UAB's team of Mavrin and Mitrovski are seeded second in the "B" Flight and received a first-round bye.
Players Mentioned
