Led by a dominant performance in doubles, the Mississippi State men’s tennis team defeated Georgia in Sunday’s Southeastern Conference opener with a 4-3 victory in Starkville.
MSU (9-3, 1-0 SEC) earned a pair of 6-2 victories in doubles to secure the opening point. The No. 2 pairing of senior Carles Hernandez and junior Dusan Milanovic finished first, with the top duo of sophomores Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez wrapping up not long after. Georgia won the first two completed singles matches, with Milanovic and freshman Radomir Tomic each falling in straight sets, but MSU took the next three to clinch the match.
Hernandez earned a 6-3, 6-2 victory at No. 3 singles, and at No. 2, the 24th-ranked Jovanovic won a pair of tight sets to put the hosts in front. Sanchez Martinez finished it off at No. 5 with a 6-2, 6-4 triumph, rendering senior Nemanja Malesevic’s three-set loss at No. 1 moot.
“In the first set I played pretty decent,” Sanchez Martinez said. “I didn’t make too many easy mistakes and didn’t give (my opponent) any points. I had a little dip at the start of the second set and he made use of it. I didn’t play great and he broke me twice. It wasn’t easy but I fought through it, stayed on top and eventually broke him back and was on top then.”
Sophomore Michal Novansky also made his season debut, teaming with Malesevic at No. 3 doubles in a match that went uncompleted, though MSU had a 5-2 lead when the second doubles match ended. Novansky was recovering from an injury all season and last competed at the 2023 SEC Championships last April.
MSU hits the road this coming weekend to battle No. 25 LSU on Friday and No. 12 Texas A&M on Sunday.
“The biggest takeaway we can build from is how well we played in doubles,” head coach Matt Roberts said. “We served and returned really well. We’ve been working a lot on our serve/return percentage in practice. I thought all three courts competed really well in doubles and gave us a chance on all three courts to win.”
Women fall in shutout against Ole Miss
Despite an early doubles victory from the Bulldogs’ No. 3 pairing of juniors Maria Rizzolo and Alessia Tagliente, MSU was unable to wrap up the doubles point or claim any singles victories in a 4-0 loss to the Rebels in Oxford on Saturday.
MSU’s No. 1 doubles team of fifth-year Alexandra Mikhailuk and freshman Athina Pitta lost 6-2, as did the No. 2 duo of junior Chloé Cirotte and freshman Jayna Clemens. Tagliente took just two games in her loss at No. 6 singles, and Rizzolo was also quickly dispatched at No. 2. Cirotte battled back from a set down to force a third set at No. 3 singles, but dropped that decisive set 6-0.
The Bulldogs (9-4, 0-1 SEC) return home this coming weekend to take on No. 21 Texas A&M on Friday and LSU on Sunday.
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