Filip Planinsek Wins NCAA Singles Championship

Alabama men's tennis player Filip Planinsek defeats Columbia's Michael Zheng in three sets to claim the first singles title in Crimson Tide history.

Filip Planinsek / Obtained from Alabama Tennis' X/Twitter

Alabama men's tennis' No. 29-ranked Filip Planinsek took down Columbia's No. 23-ranked Michael Zheng in three sets of the NCAA Singles Championship to claim the first title in Crimson Tide history.

Nevertheless, this was a hard-fought victory, as Planinsek started on the wrong side of the scoreboard. Planinsek opened the first set with a 5-3 lead, but Zheng came back to win 7-6 after a 7-4 tiebreaker.

Fortunately, Planinsek was able to shake it off with a stellar 6-3 win in the second set to go to a third and final set for the singles title. Zheng appeared to be a bit flustered towards the end of the second set, as his late double fault gave Planinsek the sixth win.

Planinsek won the first game of the third set, but even though he fought back from a 40-love deficit, Zheng was able to prevent anything more to tie it at one apiece in game two. In game three, Planinsek was up 40-15, but as Zheng did in the prior game, the lower score would remain and Alabama would lead 2-1.

Planinsek went on to take a 3-1 lead after earning the break point and the momentum continued in game five with a shutout win. Zheng was able to cut his deficit to 4-2 shortly after, but Planinsek then went on to take a commanding 5-2 lead with just one win to go.

From there, Planinsek was able to get it done, as he went to the ground in celebration after winning the match point.

Planinsek's historic run also included wins over No. 118 Jonas Hartenstein (North Florida) in the Round of 64, No. 17 Cannon Kingsley (Ohio State) in the Round of 32, No. 5 Micah Braswell (Texas) in the Round of 16, No. 15 Cooper Williams (Harvard) in the quarterfinals and No. 9 Ozan Baris (Michigan State) in the semifinals on Friday.

Planinsek's victory over Baris was perhaps his most exciting match of the tournament, as the junior clinched the win off of a five-point run, battling back from a 6-3 deficit in the tiebreaker. It was the first time in program history that Alabama had a player reach the finals in the NCAA Singles Tournament.