Borges, Oradini Post First Round Victories At ITA All-American

Thursday, October 4

Tulsa, Okla.

All Day

Mississippi State

ITA All-American Championships

Giovanni Oradini notched a comeback victory in the first round of the 2018 ITA All-American Championships singles main draw on Thursday.

Borges, Oradini Post First Round Victories At ITA All-American

October 04, 2018 | Men's Tennis

2018 ITA All-American Championships HQ

by Caleb Garner, Graduate Assistant/Communications

TULSA, Okla. – It was a great start to the singles main draw at the 2018 ITA All-American Championships for Mississippi State's Nuno Borges and Giovanni Oradini.

The top-seeded and second-ranked Borges started off the day with a 6-3, 6-4 triumph over Ohio State's 51st-ranked John McNally. Borges' victory sets up a top-30 showdown against UCLA's 28th-ranked Keegan Smith on Friday in the second round. The two-time All-American senior Borges defeated Smith in a three-set thriller in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Singles Championship in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, back in May.

State's fifth-ranked and third-seeded Oradini registered victory in comeback fashion Thursday, rallying past No. 45 Stefan Milicevic of Minnesota. After dropping the first set 6-3, Oradini stormed back to take the second 6-3 and force a third set. In the third, the Italian junior did not let up, dominating the frame and taking a 6-1 decision to advance. On Friday, Oradini is set to face Stanford's 48th-ranked Axel Geller, who took a straight-set decision against Texas No. 54 Christian Sigsgaard in his first-round outing.

MSU's 43rd-ranked senior Strahinja Rakic was the third and final Bulldog to take the court in singles Thursday, taking on Ohio State's 17th-ranked JJ Wolf, a 9-16 seed. The Buckeye managed to take the first set by a 6-1 mark and held off Rakic in the second for a 6-1, 6-2 victory. Rakic is now set to take the court in the singles consolation draw that begins Friday.

In MSU's first doubles match of the day, State's seventh-ranked tandem of Niclas Braun and Oradini battled back to force a third-set match tiebreaker after dropping a tough 6-4 decision in the first frame to BYU's Sean Hill and Jeffrey Hsu. In the second, the Bulldog pair took a 6-3 decision to set up the 10-point super-tiebreaker. In the breaker, BYU got out to a quick 7-2 lead before Braun and Oradini battled back to make it 8-4. The Cougar pair held tough and thwarted the Bulldogs' rally to take a 6-4, 3-6, 1-0(4) victory to move on to the second round.

To close out the day, State's top-ranked duo of Borges and Rakic also dropped a hard-fought three-setter - to Cal's Jacob Brumm and Yuta Kikuchi. The Bear tandem took a 6-3 decision in the first set before the Bulldogs pair forced a 10-point match tiebreaker by claiming the second 6-4. Brumm and Kikuchi then went on to take a 6-3, 4-6, 1-0(5) triumph to advance.

Both State duos will take the court Friday in consolation play. There is still much to play for in the consolation draws for the tandems and Rakic in singles, as the finalists of each draw advance to the 2018 ITA National Fall Championships in Surprise, Arizona, in November. Borges is the defending singles champion of that event, which was initiated last fall.

For more information on the Mississippi State men's tennis program, follow "HailStateMT" on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

MSU at the 2018 ITA All-American Championships
October 4, 2018 – Tulsa, Oklahoma (Michael D. Case Tennis Center)

Singles Main Draw
First Round – #2 Nuno Borges [1] (MSU) def. #51 John McNally (Ohio State) 6-3, 6-4; #5 Giovanni Oradini [3] (MSU) def. #45 Stefan Milicevic (Minnesota) 3-6, 6-3, 6-1; #17 JJ Wolf [9-16] (Ohio State) def. #43 Strahinja Rakic (MSU) 6-1, 6-2

Doubles Main Draw
First Round – Jacob Brumm/Yuta Kikuchi (Cal) def. #1 Nuno Borges/Strahinja Rakic [1] (MSU) 6-3, 4-6, 1-0(5); Sean Hill/Jeffrey Hsu (BYU) def. #7 Niclas Braun/Giovanni Oradini [5] (MSU) 6-4, 3-6, 1-0(4)

ITA National rankings precede player names; tournament seeding in brackets.