Mississippi State’s two entries in the qualifying rounds of the Icy Hot/ITA All-American Championships both fell Wednesday, missing qualification for this weekend’s main draw by one victory. Ranked 57th nationally and the top seed in the singles qualifying draw, senior Bulldog Rene-Charles Combette was upset by UCLA’s 86th-ranked Chris Lam in a tight 7-5, 7-6(6) singles match Wednesday morning. Combette had a 6-5 lead in the second set and had rallied from a 5-0 deficit in the tiebreaker to 5-5 before finally falling to the Bruin sophomore.
In doubles, Combette and Jerome Le Belicard dropped a close 8-6 decision to Tennessee’s second-seeded and 31st-ranked team of Mark Dietrich and Simon Rea.
“Well, we did not come out of today like we wanted,” MSU head coach Sylvain Guichard said, “but we played pretty well. Both matches were close and we had chances to win them. Overall, we had some positive things happen for us this week.”
Next up for the MSU netmen this fall will be the Omni Hotels Southeast Indoor Championships, to be held Oct. 25-28 in Lexington, Ky. The event is the qualifying tournament for the Omni Hotels National Indoors Championships, which will be held in November. Following that, MSU will travel to Dallas for the Omni Hotels National Indoor Championships, which are played in November.