Mississippi State men’s tennis team will open the 2002 spring season this weekend, Jan. 17-20, at the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships in Lexington, Ky The annual event is being hosted by the University of Kentucky. State will have six entries in the weekend’s 64-player Division A
singles draw, two of which are seeded. Sophomore Romain Ambert, ranked 15th in the country, is the No. 5 seed in the event. He will meet Alabama’s Stephen Mitchell in Thursday morning’s first round. Junior Rene-Charles
Combette, ranked 59th nationally, is seeded 9-16 alphabetically. He will take on Kentucky’s Gustav Pousette.
MSU’s other first-round matchups will include junior Jerome Le Belicard meeting Tennessee’s Wade Orr and sophomore Luiz Carvalho taking on Matt Behrmann of Florida. Senior David Ruiz will face South Carolina’s David Nelson, and freshman Aymeric Henou will make his debut as a Bulldog against UK’s Rehman Esmail.
State’s only entry in the Division B singles field is sophomore Max Fomine, who will also begin play tomorrow morning.
Three Bulldog doubles teams will be in competition in the 32-team doubles field. Ambert and Combette, ranked 41st in the country as a tandem and seeded eighth, will meet Seth Rose and Carl Wermee of South Carolina.
Carvalho and Le Belicard, ranked 53rd, are schedule to take on Adam Carey and Jake Olson of Tennessee. Fomine will team with Ruiz to battle Chad Harris and Bobby Reynolds of Vanderbilt.
Following the weekend’s action, MSU wastes little time in beginning its 2002 dual match campaign. The Bulldogs will host rival Southern Miss next Thursday, Jan. 24, at 2 p.m. at Mississippi State’s A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre.