STARKVILLE — The No. 17 Mississippi State men’s tennis team passed its first test of the season with flying colors Friday, defeating No. 20 Florida State 6-1 and then shutting out Tennessee State 7-0 later in the day.
Carles Hernandez and Dusan Milanovic got things started with a 6-3 doubles victory against the Seminoles, and the 24th-ranked team of Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez won 6-4 to clinch the opening point.
Jovanovic, the No. 13 ranked singles player in the country, lost his singles match 6-4, 7-5 against Florida State, but the Bulldogs were victorious everywhere else. Nemanja Malesevic, Milanovic, Hernandez and Sanchez all won in straight sets, with Radomir Tomic coming back from a set down to win his match at No. 6 singles.
“It definitely helps their confidence,” MSU head coach Matt Roberts said. “Results are part of it, but we’re so focused on the process of getting better. Whether you win or lose, there’s so many things we’re going to talk about in our individual meetings on how we can keep getting better individually and as a team. It’s good feedback, but it’s a long season, it’s a process, it’s a journey and we’re just going to keep getting better with every match.”
The Bulldogs then defeated the Tigers to improve to 4-0. Jovanovic and Sanchez cruised to a doubles win, as did Hernandez and Milanovic, and Sanchez, Roberto Ferrer Guimares and Marshall Landry all won their singles matches while hardly breaking a sweat.
Tomic clinched his match in a second-set tiebreak after dominating the first set, Jovanovic won a pair of tight sets and Hernandez, after losing his first set 6-0, edged his opponent 7-5 in the second set before winning in a super-tiebreak.
MSU is back in action this weekend for the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Starkville. The Bulldogs will host Virginia Commonwealth on Saturday and then either Florida State again or Arizona State on Sunday.
“We didn’t expect (the Florida State match) to be that easy,” Jovanovic said. “Every court knew what they were supposed to do. They gave 100 percent and we showed them what the Bulldogs are made of.”
MSU women stay perfect with win over Samford
On Saturday, MSU’s No. 3 doubles pairing of Dharani Niroshan and the No. 1 duo of Alexandra Mikhailuk and Maria Rizzolo each won 6-2, securing the opening point for the hosts. Mikhailuk then won her singles match without dropping a game, and Athina Pitta and Alessia Tagliente also both won handily to clinch the match.
MSU is off until Feb. 3, when the Bulldogs will play three home matches in two days against Alabama-Birmingham, Jackson State and Belmont.
“We talked about coming out with intensity, and staying intent throughout the match, and continuing to build habits,” head coach Chris Hooshyar said in a news release. “All across the board, they did very well. The girls that won today did a phenomenal job. It’s about building, and there are things we can take away today that are good, and there are things that we can take away and need to work on.”
Borges falls to Medvedev in Australian Open fourth round
Former MSU standout Nuno Borges, the 2019 ITA National Player of the Year and NCAA singles runner-up, saw his impressive run in the Australian Open come to an end in the fourth round against No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev in four sets.
A native of Maia, Portugal, Borges was a three-time Southeastern Conference Player of the Year for the Bulldogs before turning pro following his graduation. Prior to his run in Melbourne, Borges had never advanced past the second round of a Grand Slam tournament. He upset No. 13 seed Grigor Dimitrov in four sets in the third round.
After falling behind two sets to none against Medvedev, Borges was on the brink of defeat before winning five straight games to steal the third set, staving off two match points along the way. Medvedev finished off the match with a 6-1 fourth-set win.
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