Mississippi State men’s tennis continued its winning ways over the weekend, shutting out rival Ole Miss 7-0 on Friday evening and edging No. 21 Alabama 4-3 on Sunday.
The Rebels claimed the first completed doubles match, but the No. 13 Bulldogs (15-5, 7-2 Southeastern Conference) dominated the proceedings from there. Senior Carles Hernandez and junior Dusan Milanovic claimed a 6-4 win at No. 3 doubles, and the top pairing of sophomores Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez won 6-3 to clinch the opening point.
Milanovic won the first completed singles match at No. 4, and Sanchez Martinez (No. 5) and Jovanovic (No. 2) also won in straight sets to give the Bulldogs their first win over Ole Miss (9-11, 2-7) since 2019. Senior Nemanja Malesevic and Hernandez recorded straight-set victories as well, and freshman Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes won a super-tiebreak at No. 6 to complete the shutout.
“We’ve been talking about taking the hard route versus the easy route,” MSU head coach Matt Roberts said. “Some of the guys are even writing that on their shoes, ‘Hard route.’ You have a choice to go easy or go hard.”
The Bulldogs won the doubles point as well against the Crimson Tide (15-10, 7-2), with Hernandez and Milanovic at No. 3 and Malesevic and sophomore Michal Novansky both winning 6-3. Alabama won the first two completed singles matches before Sanchez Martinez’s 6-3, 7-5 victory at No. 5 evened the score.
The final three matches all went to a decisive third set. Milanovic squandered his match at No. 4 after taking the first set, but Ferrer Guimaraes rallied from a set down at No. 6 to tie things up again. It all came down to Hernandez at No. 3, and the senior came through with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win to secure triumph for MSU.
The Bulldogs host No. 8 Tennessee on Friday, then travel to No. 25 Auburn on Sunday as the SEC gauntlet continues.
“In singles, we battled on every court. We just got outplayed in a couple of spots today,” Roberts said. “Carles, I’m so proud of how committed and clear he was with what he wanted to do in that third set. He didn’t let that moment deter him from swinging out and bringing a lot of intensity.”
MSU women still winless in SEC play
The Bulldogs (10-12, 0-9 SEC) fell on the road against a pair of ranked foes over the weekend, losing 4-0 on Friday to No. 14 Florida and 7-0 on Sunday to No. 18 South Carolina.
MSU was unable to take a set against the Gators (12-7, 8-2) in any of the completed matches, although junior Alessia Tagliente had won the first set at No. 6 singles before Florida clinched the victory. Freshman Athina Pitta was the lone Bulldog to win a set against the Gamecocks (14-5, 6-4), dominating the first set 6-1 at No. 4 singles but losing the match in a third-set super-tiebreak.
The road swing continues for MSU in the coming week, with the Bulldogs scheduled to visit No. 4 Georgia on Friday and No. 24 Tennessee on Sunday.
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