THE ROBERTS FILE

Hometown: Little Rock, Ark.
College: Arkansas, 2006
X/Twitter: @CoachMatt_MSU
Birthday: July 9, 1984

COACHING EXPERIENCE

2015-present:
Mississippi State, Head Coach
2013-2014:
Mississippi State, Assistant Coach
2010-2012:
Michigan State, Assistant Coach
2008:
Arkansas Little Rock, Volunteer Assistant Coach

YEAR-BY-YEAR OVERALL RECORD

Year	School	W-L	Pct.
2025	Mississippi State	25-6	.810
2024	Mississippi State	19-8	.702
2023	Mississippi State	21-8	.724
2022	Mississippi State	14-13	.520
2021	Mississippi State	18-10	.643
2020	Mississippi State	9-6	.600
2019	Mississippi State	24-4	.857
2018	Mississippi State	23-3	.885
2017	Mississippi State	21-9	.700
2016	Mississippi State	18-9	.670
2015	Mississippi State	20-8	.714

School	Years	Record	Pct.
Mississippi State	11	212-84	.720
Total	11	212-84	.720

YEAR-BY-YEAR CONFERENCE RECORD

Year	School	W-L	Pct.
2025	Mississippi State	11-3	.786
2024	Mississippi State	9-3	.750
2023	Mississippi State	7-5	.583
2022	Mississippi State	4-8	.333
2021	Mississippi State	5-7	.583
2020	Mississippi State	1-2	.333
2019	Mississippi State	11-1	.920
2018	Mississippi State	11-1	.920
2017	Mississippi State	8-4	.670
2016	Mississippi State	7-4	.636
2015	Mississippi State	9-3	.750

School	Years	Record	Pct.
Mississippi State	11	83-41	.670
Total	11	83-41	.670

BY THE NUMBERS

10 NCAA Tournament Appearances
7 NCAA Round of 16
2 NCAA Quarterfinals
2 SEC Tournament Championships
11 ITA Top 25 Finishes
3 ITA Top 10 Finishes
1 NCAA Singles Finalist
13 All-America Honors
2 NCAA Elite 90 Academic Awards
1 ITA National Player of the Year
1 ITA Senior Player of the Year
1 ITA Arthur Ashe Award Winner
1 ITA National Freshman of the Year
4 ITA Southern Region Coach of the Year
36 ITA Scholar Athletes
3 SEC Player of the Year Awards
1 SEC Coach of the Year Award
36 All-SEC Honors
2 SEC Freshman of the Year Awards
37 SEC/Freshman of the Week Honors
4 SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year Award Winners
51 Academic All-SEC Honors
(Award Totals as of 2025)

PLAYING CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

2x All-SEC
84 career singles wins
3x Team Captain (2006, 2005, 2004)

Matt Roberts, who was named the program's 20th head coach back in 2015, enters his 12th season leading the Mississippi State men’s tennis program in 2026.

Roberts has found tremendous success at the helm of the Bulldogs men’s tennis program, becoming the program's all-time winningest head coach with 221 career wins on Feb. 21, 2026, in the team's 4-3 victory over Vanderbilt at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre. Adding to his impressive resume are an SEC Coach of the Year award, three SEC Player of the Year honors, two SEC Tournament Championships and having appeared in every NCAA Tournament as a head coach.

He is a five-time ITA Southern Region Coach of the Year and the 2018 SEC Coach of the Year. He has won 20 or more matches six times, including a program record 25 wins during the 2025 campaign. He has guided his teams to the NCAA Tournament every year that a tournament has been played, reaching the Round of 16 six times and the quarterfinals three times, most recently in 2025.

Under Roberts’ guidance, he led the program to back-to-back SEC Tournament Championships in 2018 and 2019, marking the first time in school history the Bulldogs had won the conference tournament in consecutive years. State also posted back-to-back 11-1 regular season records in SEC play during those seasons.

Roberts has coached a number of All-Americans and All-SEC honorees while at Mississippi State. Most notable is top-50 player in the world, Nuno Borges, who won three consecutive SEC Player of the Year honors, was named the ITA National Player of the Year in 2019, and finished that season as the national runner-up at the NCAA Individual Championships. Borges, who now plays professionally on the ATP Tour, was also a national semifinalist in 2017-18. He is the first player in program history to accomplish those feats.

Since 2015, Roberts’ teams have earned 37 All-SEC honors (first team, second team or freshman team) and 15 All-America honors. In 2025, Petar Jovanovic was named the SEC Scholar-Athlete while also earning the NCAA Elite 90 Award, which is given annually to the player at the NCAA Championship with the highest GPA. Jovanovic became the third player under Roberts’ watch to be named the SEC Scholar Athlete and the second Elite 90 Award winner.

Roberts has been an elite recruiter since day one, signing players who have rewritten the State record books. In 2025, Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez became the first doubles pair at Mississippi State to earn the No. 1 ranking in the ITA Doubles rankings. The duo also set the program record for career doubles wins (65), while finishing first & second in the most dual-match doubles victories in 2025, with Martinez taking the top spot with 23 doubles wins and Jovanovic finishing with 22. The duo under Roberts’ tutelage continues to climb the career singles and doubles records in multiple categories, and following the 2026 season will own a number of Mississippi State records.

Coach Roberts started at Mississippi State in 2013 as an assistant coach under Per Nilsson. As an assistant coach, he helped State post a 37-21 record over two seasons, including an appearance in the round of 16 in 2013. In 2014, Roberts was named the ITA Southern Region Assistant of the Year.

Prior to coming to Starkville, he spent three seasons at Michigan State (2010-12) under legendary coach Gene Orlando. Went 49-34 in his three years assisting Orlando, helping improve the Spartans from 13-14 in his first season to 18-9 and 18-11 in his next two seasons.

Following his professional playing career, he served as a volunteer assistant coach at Arkansas-Little Rock in 2008.

Roberts was a three-time captain and four-year letterwinner (2003-06) at the University of Arkansas.

During his time in Fayetteville, Roberts amassed a career record of 84-50 in singles play, helping lead his team to a top 25 ranking in each of his four seasons. Roberts' upperclassman years are where he shined the most, registering a 54-19 record and two All-SEC honors as a junior and senior.

Before attending Arkansas, Roberts was one of the top-ranked juniors in the United States.

From 2000-02, he was ranked as the No. 1 Southern junior and climbed to as high as number seven in the national junior rankings. Roberts was an instrumental part of Pulaski Academy's 2002 Arkansas High School State Championship, where he also captured the individual championship.

While playing professionally on the ATP circuit, Roberts achieved career-high rankings of No. 517 (singles) and No. 522 (doubles).

A native of Little Rock, Ark., Roberts graduated from Arkansas in 2006 with a bachelor's degree in kinesiology with an emphasis in coaching and teaching. He and his wife Marina, reside in Starkville.