The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Men's Tennis Team Opens Dual Match Season Friday
1/14/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Jan. 14, 2010
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ----- The UAB men's tennis team will open its 2010 dual match season on Friday when the Blazers travel to Atlanta to meet Georgia Tech.
The match with the No. 43-ranked Yellow Jackets will start at 2:00 p.m. EST at the Bill Moore Tennis Center.
UAB head coach Derek Tarr, entering his 22nd season at the helm of the Blazers' program, welcomes back six letterwinners from last year's team that finished with a 10-11 record in duals.
Three seniors -- Dan Cornei, Alex Emery and Thomas Petrich -- are among the returning players. In addition, Wofford transfer Danny Manlow, who had an outstanding fall for UAB, is expected to make an impact in the Blazers' lineup.
In addition, David Zimmerman, a freshman from Germany, is expected to make his collegiate debut in Friday's match after enrolling for spring semester.
Tarr's team will face a stern test in its first match of the season. Tech also finished 10-11 last spring, but the Jackets return a veteran lineup that includes the nation's No. 4-ranked collegiate player, junior Guillermo Gomez.
Gomez was 29-10 last season in singles play and got the 2009-10 campaign off to a great start when he finished as singles runner-up at the ITA Indoor National Championships in November. The Jackets have another player, Dusan Milijevic, listed No. 112 in the ITA rankings.
UAB's Cornei is the lone Blazer listed in the rankings that came out Jan. 5. The Canada native is ranked No. 110 in singles.
"Obviously, we have a major challenge facing us playing a team the caliber of Georgia Tech in our first match of the season," said Tarr. "They have a high ranking and I really feel like they are better than their ranking. But this will be a good test for us to play against a quality opponent and to see where we are.
"It will be interesting to see how we perform in this match. We're healthy going into the match, but we're certainly not at a peak in our play."
