Mississippi State University men’s tennis regained momentum on Thursday with a 6-1 win against Louisiana State University for the Bulldogs’ Southeastern Conference home opener.
Mississippi State’s head coach Matt Roberts said the Tigers were a highly anticipated matchup.
“Today was a good match,” Roberts said. “LSU is a lot better than their ranking. They compete well because they’re trying to play for their life right now, getting some ranked wins for the tournament. We knew they were going to be hungry.”
The Bulldogs started strong in doubles play, with No. 10-ranked duo Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez securing a 6-2 match victory over LSU’s No. 27-ranked duo of Aleksi Lofman and Julien Penzlin. It marked their sixth win against a ranked opponent and the 19th of their careers as a tandem. The pair also reached 45 career doubles victories together, ranking fourth all-time in school history.
Sanchez Martinez reflected on the match and the team’s preparation leading up to it.
“I thought it was a good game,” Sanchez Martinez said. “We were prepared. We came from a pretty long streak, practicing and playing road matches over the weekend and coming back late Monday. We didn’t take a day off; we went straight into practice again. I mean, we were ready for it. We were kind of in the zone. We knew LSU was going to come for us. We all did a good job handling that pressure.”
Jovanovic delivered Mississippi State’s first singles win dominantly, taking his match 6-1, 6-0. Though the Tigers responded with a 6-2 win over Dusan Milanovic, cutting MSU’s lead to 2-1, the Bulldogs answered by sweeping the next four matches to secure the 6-1 victory.
Roberts said he was pleased to see Jovanovic bounce back from recent losses.
“Really happy for Petar,” Roberts said. “He lost two tough matches last weekend, but losses don’t affect his confidence. He gets right back to work, and he won one the other day. It was awesome to see him get right back to winning ways.”
Junior Mario Martinez Serrano and freshman Niccolo Baroni extended their doubles win streak to five, while Martinez Serrano pushed his singles win streak to eight. Roberts praised Serrano’s resilience during the match.
“Mario going down love-30 and then finding a way to come back in that game and clinch the doubles point for us was huge,” Roberts said. “Mario is huge for us to get the second set the way he did. He’s a tough kid. He didn’t play his best today, but he problem-solved.”
For the next matchup, the Bulldogs head to Austin, Texas, to take on the Texas Longhorns March 6 at 6 p.m.
