MATCH 1 BOX SCORE (PDF)

MATCH 2 BOX SCORE (PDF)

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— The Samford men's tennis team opened the 2021 season with two matches at Alabama, falling by scores of 6-1 and 5-2 Saturday afternoon.

"Today was a good start to our season," Samforrd head coach Rahim Esmail said. "Two quality matches where we competed well across the board. We have a lot of work to do moving forward, but we are happy to be out there competing again. Alabama is a very strong team, a Top 25 caliber program, and we were able to push them in certain spots today. The doubles point could have gone either way in both matches, and we competed well to get some wins in singles. Looking forward to getting back out there and competing again at Auburn tomorrow."
 
In the first match, Samford's win came at the No. 3 singles where Jim Hendrix earned a 6-7, 6-4, 1-0 win over Edson Ortiz, who is ranked 89th nationally. Alabama won the first contest, 6-1.
 
Eladio Fabregas defeated Ricardo Roberto, 6-3, 6-3 at No. 2 singles in the second match, a 5-2 Alabama win. At No. 3 singles, Tomas Santantonio defeated Vincent Rettke, 6-4, 4-6, 1-0.
 
Samford will play at Auburn Sunday at 2 p.m. A full list of results from Saturday's two matches is below.
 
Alabama Men's Tennis 6, Samford Men's Tennis 1
Singles competition
1. Patrick Kaukovalta (UA-M) def. Rossouw Norval (SAM-M) 6-4, 6-3
2. Zhe Zhou (UA-M) def. Victor Chaw (SAM-M) 6-2, 6-3
3. Jim Hendrix (SAM-M) def. #89 Edson Ortiz (UA-M) 6-7, 6-4, 1-0
4. Ricardo Roberto (UA-M) def. Tomas Santantonio (SAM-M) 6-2, 6-3
5. Vincent Rettke (UA-M) def. Eladio Fabregas (SAM-M) 6-1, 6-4
6. Gabriel Diaz Freire (UA-M) def. M.A. Bellalouna (SAM-M) 7-6, 6-2
 
Doubles competition
1. Edson Ortiz/Marcelo S. Garza (UA-M) def. Rossouw Norval/Eladio Fabregas (SAM-M) 6-1
2. Patrick Kaukovalta/Ricardo Roberto (UA-M) vs. Victor Chaw/Jim Hendrix (SAM-M) 5-3, unfinished
3. Gabriel Diaz Freire/Zhe Zhou (UA-M) def. Tomas Santantonio/M.A. Bellalouna (SAM-M) 6-4
 
Alabama Men's Tennis 5, Samford Men's Tennis 2
Singles competition
1. Zhe Zhou (UA-M) def. Rossouw Norval (SAM-M) 6-1, 6-3
2. Eladio Fabregas (SAM-M) def. Ricardo Roberto (UA-M) 6-3, 6-3
3. Tomas Santantonio (SAM-M) def. Vincent Rettke (UA-M) 6-4, 4-6, 1-0
4. Jeremy Gschwendtner (UA-M) def. M.A. Bellalouna (SAM-M) 6-2, 6-0
5. Alexey Nesterov (UA-M) def. Matthew Gooch (SAM-M) 6-2, 6-1
6. Marcelo S. Garza (UA-M) def. Harrison Williams (SAM-M) 6-4, 7-5
 
Doubles competition
1. Patrick Kaukovalta/Ricardo Roberto (UA-M) def. Eladio Fabregas/Rossouw Norval (SAM-M) 7-6
2. Victor Chaw/Jim Hendrix (SAM-M) def. Gabriel Diaz Freire/Zhe Zhou (UA-M) 7-5
3. Alexey Nesterov/Marcelo S. Garza (UA-M) def. Tomas Santantonio/M.A. Bellalouna (SAM-M) 7-6