The Mississippi State men’s tennis team got its first two victories of the season last week, defeating a strong UAB team and rallying from behind to defeat No. 26 Tulane.
On Thursday, UAB jumped out to an early lead, taking the doubles point with victories at the No. 1 and 3 positions. MSU’s 32nd-ranked team of Romain Ambert and Florent Girod defeated Anton Mavrin and Kristijan Mitrovski 8-3 for State’s only doubles victory.
In singles, State dropped just one match, winning three of four points after losing the first set. Sophomore Florent Girod gave MSU its first point with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Mitrovski at the No. 5 position. Juan-Carlos Pinto, a sophomore transfer from Hampton University, won State’s next point, defeating Mavrin 6-2, 6-2 at the No. 2 spot.
Luiz Carvalho’s 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory over Andre Maier gave State its decisive fourth point. The teams would split the final two matches of the day, including a three set victory by senior all-American Romain Ambert.
“UAB gave us everything we wanted today,” MSU head coach Sylvain Guichard said, “but our guys did a great job of fighting after losing doubles and getting down early in singles. UAB is at least a top 50 team, and I would not be surprised at all if they finish the season even higher.”
With 26th-ranked Tulane visiting on Saturday, the Bulldogs had little time to rest. State proved it was ready for the challenge.
State jumped ahead of Tulane by winning the doubles point, sweeping the No. 1 and 2 positions 8-3 and 8-5, respectively. The third doubles position was not played.
In a matchup of two of the nation’s Top 10 players, TU’s No. 8 Michael Kogan defeated Bulldog senior No. 4 Romain Ambert 7-5, 4-6, 6-1. Tulane would also claim victories at the No. 2 and No. 4 positions to take a 3-1 advantage.
However, State would not quit. Carvalho’s 7-5, 6-2 victory made it 3-2 and left the match to be decided by the No. 5 and 6 positions.
“I knew we needed Carvalho to win at No. 3,” Guichard added, “because I was confident we had a good chance at 5 and 6. You hate to be down 3-2 with two matches to go, but I was confident.”
When freshman Romain Provenzano tied the match with a 6-2, 7-6(6) victory, all eyes turned to MSU’s Florent Girod and Tulane’s Jacobo Hernandez, both sophomores. After splitting the first two sets, Girod and Hernandez battled to 3-3 in the third set. Girod then won a service break and held on for a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory to give the Bulldogs the upset.
“Tulane is really a Top 15 or Top 20 team,” Guichard said. “We played really well. We fought hard. I was very happy with the effort of the entire team.”