GREG BARNETT
Sports Editor
The Alabama tennis team traveled to the Ralphs-Strauss Tennis Center on Saturday and dealt Pepperdine its first home loss in 58 matches. The No.-21 Waves lost the doubles point, but rallied to win three singles matches to take the lead, 3-1. However, it wasn’t enough as Pepperdine couldn’t pull out another victory in any of the other three singles matches, to fall 4-3.
“We’re going through a tough time right now,” Head Coach Adam Steinberg said. “Doubles has been killing us, it’s so hard to win four singles matches against the top teams.”
With the loss, the Waves fell to 1-4 on the season while the Crimson Tide kept their undefeated season alive at 7-0.
Sophomores Bassam Beidas and James Lemke were the only Waves pair to win a doubles match, defeating junior Andrew Felsenthal and sophomore Saketh Myneni, 8-4.
Pepperdine’s No.-1 doubles tandem of senior Andre Begemann and junior Omar Altmann fell to juniors Daniel Buikema and Mathieu Thibaudeau, 8-6. Alabama’s seniors Javier Bes and Sammy Struyf crushed Pepperdine’s No.-3 team of sophomore Mahmoud Kamel and freshman Johannes de Villiers, 8-3.
“[Alabama is a top-ten team but it’s all about the doubles point,” Altmann said. “Just a couple of points here and there could have gotten us the doubles point easily.”
In singles action, the Waves got off to a quick start winning the number one, three and four singles matches to take a 3-1 lead.
Begemann defeated Thibaudeau (6-1, 6-4), Altmann bested senior Billy Mertz (6-4, 6-1) and Lemke beat Struyf (6-1, 6-3).
Altmann said he played well in his match, but winning a singles matchis only one point. More important, he says, is winning the match quickly.
“I tried to get on the board as quickly as possible,” he said. “It makes a huge difference mentally for the other guys.”
Despite the good start in singles, Pepperdine couldn’t win another match in the remaining three singles matches.
Beidas lost to Myneni (7-5, 6-2) and Jung defeated Kamel (6-4, 7-6). With the match tied at 3-3, it all came down to the No.-6 singles match between Bes and de Villiers. De Villiers dropped the first set, 7-5, but came back to win the second set, 6-3. However, he couldn’t complete the comeback, dropping the final set and the match, 6-3.
Altmann said the team needs to win the doubles point because it is tough to come back against good teams.
“When you lose the doubles it’s always hard to fight from behind and that’s what we’ve been doing in most of our matches, lately,” he said. “We’ve been winning two, three, or four singles every match but the doubles point is crucial.”
The Waves head east for a two-match road trip against Florida State and Florida. They face Florida State on Saturday and Florida on Monday.
02-14-2008
