Spurred on by some solid play in both singles and doubles, Mississippi State’s 25th-ranked men’s tennis team posted a 5-2 victory over 67th-ranked UAB Sunday afternoon on the MSU campus. The win, which was State’s 10th straight over the Blazers, moved MSU to 2-1 overall. UAB fell to 1-2.
State claimed the opening point of the match with impressive 8-2 victories at the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles positions. Bulldogs Romain Ambert and Rene-Charles Combette downed Blazers Ivan Andreev and Kristijan Mitrovski at No. 1 while MSU’s pair of Florent Girod and Jerome Le Belicard was victorious at No. 2 over UAB’s Andre Maier and Dino Mancarella.
In singles, the Bulldogs jumped out to a one-set lead in four of the six matches and would ride those leads to victories in all four contests.
Putting State up 2-0 was Ambert, as the junior all-American had little trouble at the No. 1 spot, dispensing Patrick Suhrbier 6-0, 6-1. Ambert improved to 20-5 at the No. 1 position during his Bulldog career.
MSU gained a 3-0 lead following a solid 6-2, 6-2 win from Le Belicard over UAB’s Andreev at No. 2. Providing the match clincher for State would be the rookie Girod. The Belfort, France, native held off the Blazers’ Mitrovski 6-3, 6-4 at the No. 4 spot.
UAB would claim triumphs in two of the three remaining matches. At No. 6, UAB’s Sanzaruz Zaman downed Bulldog true freshman Luc Maasdorp 6-3, 6-4. Junior Max Fomine provided State’s fifth and final point at No. 3, claiming a three-set affair from Maier 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
In the last match on court, Bulldog Matt Armstrong and Blazer Ruben Zrihen would produce a dandy, a match that lasted over three and one-half hours. After Zrihen took a close first set 6-4 and was serving for the second, Armstrong broke back and eventually forced a tiebreaker, which he won 7-4. The players battled another hour in the third, with Zrihen finally prevailing 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-4.
“I am very happy with our effort today,” MSU head coach Sylvain Guichard said. “We battled and played much more focused at every position and did what we needed to do to win the match. Now we have to regroup and prepare for another very tough match with Memphis Wednesday.”
On Wednesday, State will closeout its current four-match homestand, hosting No. 54 Memphis at 2 p.m. The Bulldogs and Tigers have not met on the tennis court since 1988. After a road match at No. 40 Tulane Sunday and a battle with sixth-ranked, arch-rival Mississippi in the River Hills Cup in Jackson on Feb. 13, the Bulldogs will return home Feb. 19 to welcome 43rd-ranked South Alabama.