The Mississippi State men’s tennis team will begin its regular season tomorrow. The Bulldogs and head coach Sylvain Guichard open with tough challenges against No. 2 Baylor and No. 6 Mississippi.
Last weekend, MSU competed in the SEC Coaches’ Indoor Championships in Athens, Ga.
Bulldog senior Romain Ambert, the top seed in the tournament, advanced to the semi-finals before a recurring elbow injury began bothering him.
Hamid Mirzadeh of Florida upset Ambert in the semis 6-2, 6-3. The injury forced Ambert and partner Florent Girod to default their quarterfinal doubles match Sunday afternoon.
“Ambert hurt his elbow about four or five years ago, and he’s still kind of weak sometimes,” Guichard said. “It bothered him, so he couldn’t really play, but he told me it was nothing to worry about. It’s the same thing that happened to him last semester.”
Ambert, ranked fourth nationally, became the only player from State to make the singles main draw. Seniors Matt Armstrong and Max Fomine each finished one win shy of advancing to weekend play.
The tournament provided an adequate warm-up for the regular season, since teams can’t practice over Christmas break.
“That was the first week of practice,” said Guichard. “None of the guys were really prepared, so I didn’t expect great results. The guys showed up and we played pretty well. It didn’t really show in the results, but we performed well.”
The unfamiliar indoor surface forced the Bulldogs to make adjustments. Indoor courts play much faster and cater to big servers more than the outdoor courts. Most of State’s matches are played outdoors. MSU will again play on the indoor surface when they face Mississippi in the River Hills Cup in Jackson Jan. 29.
“We have two indoor courts and are glad to have them, but we hardly ever practice indoors,” Guichard said. “The guys played indoors a few times before we left for the tournament, but mostly we are practicing outside. The biggest adjustment was that we had not practiced much at all.”
Guichard knows that the Bulldogs don’t have much time to prepare for their upcoming matches.
Juniors Benjamin Becker and Benedikt Dorsch, ranked fifth and third respectively, will lead the Baylor Bears Saturday.
Both matches will be a chance for the Bulldogs to showcase their talent against the nation’s elite. However, Guichard realizes that with little practice time, his team will not be fully prepared.
“The tennis season is weird because it starts right after the Christmas break,” said Guichard. “Most of the guys come back and are not in good shape.
We’re not ready now. We don’t have our full squad yet. But, this time of year it’s a matter of talent against talent. So, we definitely have a chance of winning these two matches.