Mississippi State’s 41st-ranked men’s tennis team came just short of upsetting 10th-ranked Kentucky Sunday afternoon at MSU’s A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre, as the Wildcats claimed a 4-3 victory over the Bulldogs in Southeastern Conference action.
The setback dropped State to 5-9 overall, 1-5 in the SEC. UK improved to 12-7, 4-2. The win was the first for the Wildcats in Starkville since 1992.
Kentucky would gain the early lead by posting victories at the No. 2 and 3 doubles positions, claiming 8-2 wins at those spots in the lineup. State won by the same score at No. 1.
In singles, State attempted a comeback, claiming the first set in three matches, but Kentucky would prove too strong in the other three contests, holding the leads it had gained in those affairs to go on and claim the team victory.
MSU tied the match at 1-1 when all-American Romain Ambert, currently ranked 60th nationally, was very impressive in a 6-2, 6-3 win over 11th-ranked Wildcat Jesse Witten at No. 1 singles. The win, which came on the junior Bulldog’s birthday, was his third in four career meetings with the UK all-American.
But UK would take the next three matches finished to clinch the victory. Giving the Wildcats a 2-1 advantage was 70th-ranked Karim Benmansour, who bested Jerome Le Belicard 6-3, 6-4 at the No. 3 position. Kentucky went up 3-1 with a 6-3, 6-2 win from 102nd-ranked Rahim Esmail over MSU’s Florent Girod at No. 5.
The Wildcats would get the deciding triumph at the bottom spot in the lineup, where 109th-ranked Alex Hume overcame a 3-0 deficit in the second set to down State’s Luc Maasdorp 6-1, 6-4.
Bulldogs Max Fomine and Rene-Charles Combette would secure the final two points of the day for State. Fomine was a 6-3, 6-7(5), 1-0(7) winner over Matt Emery at No. 4, claiming a super tiebreaker for the third set. Combette downed Evan Austin 7-5, 6-3 at the No. 2 spot.
“We played well again today,” MSU head coach Sylvain Guichard said. “We gave the No. 10 team in the country everything they wanted and we were just a few points away from winning this one. We just have to keep our heads up and continue playing hard. We have been so close to breaking through in all of the matches we have played.”
State continues SEC play this weekend with a pair of road contests. The Bulldogs will travel to 33rd-ranked Tennessee Friday, March 28, before visiting 17th-ranked Georgia Sunday, March 30.