Bama, Auburn partipate in 76th Blue Gray Invitational this weekend

Filip Planinsek and the Alabama Crimson Tide will participate in this weekend’s Blue Gray Invitational Tennis Class at Lagoon Park and Millbrook. (Unv. Alabama Athletic Dept.)

By TIM GAYLE

The 76th annual Blue Gray National Tennis Classic opens play today with a twist as matches are held at Lagoon Park Tennis Center and the new 17 Springs facility in Millbrook.

The event features an outstanding group of eight men’s and eight women’s teams from across the country, featuring some of the nation’s top collegiate tennis players.

“Last year’s champions were the Auburn men and the Wake Forest women and they are both returning,” Blue-Gray president Kimberly Mathews said. “And we have highly ranked Michigan State that will be joining us this year.”

On the men’s side, 19th-ranked Alabama headlines a group that includes 21st-ranked Michigan State, 27th-ranked Middle Tennessee, 31st-ranked Princeton, 47th-ranked Old Dominion, 48th-ranked Auburn, 51st-ranked Boise State and 64th-ranked Rice.

The tournament will include some of the top collegiate players in the country, including Michigan State’s Ozan Baris, who is fourth in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, and Alabama’s Filip Planinsek, who is ranked 30th. Last year, the pair of No. 1 singles players staged a memorable battle when the Spartans visited Tuscaloosa.  

Also included among the top 50 singles’ players are Ronnie Hohmann (19th) of Michigan State, Leo Raquin (33rd) of Middle Tennessee, Samuel Sippel (43rd) of Boise State and Tyler Stice (44th) of Auburn.  

Baris teams with Max Shelton to form the top-ranked doubles team in college tennis, while Planinsek partners with Andreii Simnukh to comprise the 35th-ranked doubles team. Old Dominion has two of the top 50 doubles teams in the country in Codie Schalk Van Schalkwyk and Connor Henry Van Schalkwyk at No. 16 and Jacob Cadonau and Cosme Rolland de Ravel at No. 43.

On the women’s side, the top draw would have been 11th-ranked Auburn, but the Tigers turned down their annual invitation to the event. Texas Tech enters the event as the highest-ranked team at No. 22, followed by 24th-ranked Illinois, 26th-ranked Yale, 36th-ranked Alabama, 43rd-ranked Arizona, 59th-ranked Wake Forest, Furman and Tulsa.

While the women’s players aren’t as highly rated as the men, two singles players to keep an eye on are Wake Forest’s Casie Wooten, who is 26th in the latest ITA rankings, and Alabama’s Loudmilla Bencheikh, who is 31st. Bencheikh and Anne Marie Hiser are the second highest ranked doubles team in the tournament at No. 37. Texas Tech’s Metka Komac and Avelina Sayfetdinova are ranked seventh in this week’s ITA rankings.

Admission to the Blue-Gray is free. There will be a free kid’s clinic at Lagoon Park Tennis Center on Saturday at 9 a.m.

The tournament opens on Friday with matches at both Lagoon Park Tennis Center and 17 Springs, which replaced O’Connor Tennis Center this year.

“There’s a brand-new facility in Millbrook and this was a way to engage residents in that area and expand the tournament to them,” Mathews said. “We really want to thank the city of Montgomery and the parks and recreation department for the upgrades that they’ve done. And 17 Springs, we’ve got a one-year contract with them and the YMCA that owns it and runs it have been phenomenal to work with, as has the city of Montgomery.”

In aaddition, two former players will be inducted into the Blue-Gray Hall of Fame this year -- Alabama’s Erin Routliffe and Auburn’s Tim Puetz.

Routliffe, a doubles quarterfinalist at Wimbledon in 2022 and a U.S. Open doubles champion in 2023, holds the Crimson Tide school record for most singles wins (109) and was a two-time NCAA doubles champion while at Alabama (2013-17).

Puetz was a four-time All American at Auburn (2008-11) and is regarded as one of the world’s top doubles players. He made the 2023 doubles semifinals at Wimbledon and won the French Open mixed doubles championship last year. He made the French Open doubles quarterfinals in 2020, 2021 and 2023 and competed in the 2020 Olympics.

The organization also handed out the Jim Wilson Jr. Giving Back With Grace Award, presented posthumously on Thursday at the welcome banquet to Jim Wilson III in recognition of his generosity in the community.