Thursday, May 24
Winston-Salem, N.C.
All Day
Mississippi State
vs
NCAA Individual Championships
Giovanni Oradini became MSU's 24th All-American by reaching the NCAA singles Round of 16 Thursday.
Photo by: John R. Cade
Bulldogs Go 3-0 On Day Two Of NCAA Singles And Doubles Championships
May 24, 2018 | Men's Tennis
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – For the second day in a row, the Mississippi State men's tennis team's entries in the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships had to endure three-set battles to come out on top.
On Thursday at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex, the Bulldogs notched a pair of three-set singles wins as well as a nail-biting doubles triumph to propel Nuno Borges, Giovanni Oradini and the doubles tandem of Borges and Strahinja Rakic into Friday's Round of 16. It marks the first time since 1997 that MSU has advanced two singles players and a doubles duo to the NCAA Round of 16 in the same year.
"I'm really proud of how we battled today," head coach Matt Roberts said. "Giovanni was really tested mentally today. His opponent always plays tough and never gave him many free points. Nuno had to play a very tough player with a huge serve. He kept pumping himself up and competing, and then turned that match around. I'm really proud of how all three guys competed and represented Mississippi State, and we're looking forward to another day tomorrow to continue working together and having fun here in the best tournament in college tennis."
To start off the day in the second round of singles action, Bulldog sophomore Giovanni Oradini earned a tight three-set victory over Minnesota senior Felix Corwin, who is ranked 53rd nationally. After taking a back-and-forth first set that concluded with Oradini securing a tight tiebreaker 8-6, Corwin mirrored Oradini's performance, taking the second set 7-6(3) to set up a deciding third set.
There, the Rovereto, Italy, native got going, as he mounted a 3-0 lead. Corwin fought back to 3-2, on-serve but Oradini answered right back with a break of his own. After holding to 5-2, Oradini got up 15-40 with Corwin serving to stay in the match and, on that point, the southpaw ended his match in the same fashion as Wednesday's—by smacking a forehand winner just inside the baseline to take a 7-6(8), 6-7(3), 6-2 decision to advance to the NCAA Round of 16. By doing so, Oradini earned All-America status for 2018, becoming the 24th All-American in MSU men's tennis history.
"I played pretty well in the first set, but didn't play as well in the second and I had a dip of intensity there," Oradini said. "I was really intense in my third set. I had my game plan and stuck to it, which allowed me to play my game."
Oradini is now set to face the nation's top-ranked player in UCLA's Martin Redlicki, who reached the Round of 16 with a pair of three-set comeback triumphs—first against Ole Miss' 33rd-ranked Tim Sandkaulen on Wednesday followed by a rally against UC-Santa Barbara's No. 67 Nicolas Moreno de Alboran on Thursday. Oradini and Redlicki will square off Friday at 10 a.m. ET.
Borges faced a familiar foe in his second-round battle Thursday, taking on tourney host Wake Forest's Skander Mansouri (ranked 38th nationally) for the third time in two seasons. The two-time All-American Bulldog started strong and breezed to a 6-2 first-set victory. Mansouri would not go away that quickly, though.
The second set was more back-and-forth until Mansouri broke Borges at 4-all, 30-40, to take a 5-4 lead. Mansouri served it out and took the second frame by a 6-4 mark to force a third set.
Mansouri continued his momentum from the second stanza, building a 4-2 lead and going up 15-40 in an attempt to break Borges and take a commanding 5-2 lead. Borges held strong, however, and won the final three points to hold that game to 4-3. From there, the two-time SEC Player of the Year took control, fending off Mansouri by taking three straight games on deciding points to take the set and match 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. Borges' win was his second straight against Mansouri in three meetings, with Borges' last win coming in the 2017 NCAA Singles quarterfinals in Athens, Ga.
"When I took the 6-2, 1-0 lead, I thought I had him," Borges said. "He had a deuce point at 1-all and I thought I was going to break him right there. He bounced back really fast and the momentum carried a little bit over to his side. He was serving so clean and it was hard for me to do anything, but I took the chances he gave me."
Borges moves on to the Round of 16 for the second year in a row, where he will take on Florida's Alfredo Perez, who is ranked 14th nationally and is a 9-16 alphabetical seed in the draw. Perez reached the Round of 16 by taking straight-set decisions against Ohio State's 41st-ranked JJ Wolf and Columbia's 27th-ranked Victor Pham. Match time between Oradini and Redlicki is set for 11:30 a.m. ET Friday morning.
Yet another three-set affair occurred in Thursday's opening round of doubles, with State's top-ranked and top-seeded Borges and Strahinja Rakic taking on a gritty Louisville tandem of Chris Morin-Kougoucheff and Parker Wynn. The 18th-ranked Cardinal duo got off to a hot start, building a 4-1 lead before taking the first set 6-2.
The Bulldogs fought back in the second set, rallying from down 4-2 to break back and knot the score up at 4-all. UL broke again to go up 5-4 and serve for the match, but Borges and Rakic won the final three games to force a deciding 10-point tiebreaker.
In the breaker, the Cardinals began by winning five of the first seven points. State did not panic, taking advantage of Louisville miscues and cutting Louisville's lead to 5-4. UL stretched its lead to 7-4, but the Bulldogs countered with two points of their own to make it 7-6 Louisville. Morin-Kougoucheff then double-faulted twice to give State its first lead of the tiebreaker at 8-7.
UL knotted things up at 8-all, but the Bulldogs held to take a 9-8 lead with Louisville going back on serve. There, both of Wynn's serve attempts landed deep, lifting the Bulldogs to a remarkable 3-6, 7-5, 1-0(8) comeback victory to send them to the Round of 16, where they will take on Wisconsin's 14th-ranked Chema Carranza and Josef Dodridge at 3 p.m. ET Friday.
"They were playing unbelievable doubles and it was super clean," Borges said. "Today was all about competing until the last point, and that's what we did."
"We just tried to stay in it and we waited for our chance," Rakic added. "When that chance came, we took it and it paid off."
Tickets
Tickets for the 2018 NCAA Tennis Championships can be purchased through the Wake Forest ticket office.
Live Video/Stats
All matches at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex will feature live scoringand live video.
MSU In The 2018 NCAA Singles & Doubles Championships
May 24, 2018 – Winston-Salem, N.C. (Wake Forest Tennis Complex)
Singles
Second Round– #23 Giovanni Oradini (MSU) def. #53 Felix Corwin (Minnesota) 7-6(6), 6-7(3), 6-2; #2 Nuno Borges [3] (MSU) def. #38 Skander Mansouri (Wake Forest) 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
Doubles
First Round– #1 Nuno Borges/Strahinja Rakic [1] (MSU) def. #18 Chris Morin-Kougoucheff/Parker Wynn (Louisville) 3-6, 7-5, 1-0(8).
ITA National rankings precede player names; tournament seeding in brackets
For more information on the Mississippi State men's tennis program, follow "HailStateMT" on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
On Thursday at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex, the Bulldogs notched a pair of three-set singles wins as well as a nail-biting doubles triumph to propel Nuno Borges, Giovanni Oradini and the doubles tandem of Borges and Strahinja Rakic into Friday's Round of 16. It marks the first time since 1997 that MSU has advanced two singles players and a doubles duo to the NCAA Round of 16 in the same year.
"I'm really proud of how we battled today," head coach Matt Roberts said. "Giovanni was really tested mentally today. His opponent always plays tough and never gave him many free points. Nuno had to play a very tough player with a huge serve. He kept pumping himself up and competing, and then turned that match around. I'm really proud of how all three guys competed and represented Mississippi State, and we're looking forward to another day tomorrow to continue working together and having fun here in the best tournament in college tennis."
To start off the day in the second round of singles action, Bulldog sophomore Giovanni Oradini earned a tight three-set victory over Minnesota senior Felix Corwin, who is ranked 53rd nationally. After taking a back-and-forth first set that concluded with Oradini securing a tight tiebreaker 8-6, Corwin mirrored Oradini's performance, taking the second set 7-6(3) to set up a deciding third set.
There, the Rovereto, Italy, native got going, as he mounted a 3-0 lead. Corwin fought back to 3-2, on-serve but Oradini answered right back with a break of his own. After holding to 5-2, Oradini got up 15-40 with Corwin serving to stay in the match and, on that point, the southpaw ended his match in the same fashion as Wednesday's—by smacking a forehand winner just inside the baseline to take a 7-6(8), 6-7(3), 6-2 decision to advance to the NCAA Round of 16. By doing so, Oradini earned All-America status for 2018, becoming the 24th All-American in MSU men's tennis history.
"I played pretty well in the first set, but didn't play as well in the second and I had a dip of intensity there," Oradini said. "I was really intense in my third set. I had my game plan and stuck to it, which allowed me to play my game."
Oradini is now set to face the nation's top-ranked player in UCLA's Martin Redlicki, who reached the Round of 16 with a pair of three-set comeback triumphs—first against Ole Miss' 33rd-ranked Tim Sandkaulen on Wednesday followed by a rally against UC-Santa Barbara's No. 67 Nicolas Moreno de Alboran on Thursday. Oradini and Redlicki will square off Friday at 10 a.m. ET.
Borges faced a familiar foe in his second-round battle Thursday, taking on tourney host Wake Forest's Skander Mansouri (ranked 38th nationally) for the third time in two seasons. The two-time All-American Bulldog started strong and breezed to a 6-2 first-set victory. Mansouri would not go away that quickly, though.
The second set was more back-and-forth until Mansouri broke Borges at 4-all, 30-40, to take a 5-4 lead. Mansouri served it out and took the second frame by a 6-4 mark to force a third set.
Mansouri continued his momentum from the second stanza, building a 4-2 lead and going up 15-40 in an attempt to break Borges and take a commanding 5-2 lead. Borges held strong, however, and won the final three points to hold that game to 4-3. From there, the two-time SEC Player of the Year took control, fending off Mansouri by taking three straight games on deciding points to take the set and match 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. Borges' win was his second straight against Mansouri in three meetings, with Borges' last win coming in the 2017 NCAA Singles quarterfinals in Athens, Ga.
"When I took the 6-2, 1-0 lead, I thought I had him," Borges said. "He had a deuce point at 1-all and I thought I was going to break him right there. He bounced back really fast and the momentum carried a little bit over to his side. He was serving so clean and it was hard for me to do anything, but I took the chances he gave me."
Borges moves on to the Round of 16 for the second year in a row, where he will take on Florida's Alfredo Perez, who is ranked 14th nationally and is a 9-16 alphabetical seed in the draw. Perez reached the Round of 16 by taking straight-set decisions against Ohio State's 41st-ranked JJ Wolf and Columbia's 27th-ranked Victor Pham. Match time between Oradini and Redlicki is set for 11:30 a.m. ET Friday morning.
Yet another three-set affair occurred in Thursday's opening round of doubles, with State's top-ranked and top-seeded Borges and Strahinja Rakic taking on a gritty Louisville tandem of Chris Morin-Kougoucheff and Parker Wynn. The 18th-ranked Cardinal duo got off to a hot start, building a 4-1 lead before taking the first set 6-2.
The Bulldogs fought back in the second set, rallying from down 4-2 to break back and knot the score up at 4-all. UL broke again to go up 5-4 and serve for the match, but Borges and Rakic won the final three games to force a deciding 10-point tiebreaker.
In the breaker, the Cardinals began by winning five of the first seven points. State did not panic, taking advantage of Louisville miscues and cutting Louisville's lead to 5-4. UL stretched its lead to 7-4, but the Bulldogs countered with two points of their own to make it 7-6 Louisville. Morin-Kougoucheff then double-faulted twice to give State its first lead of the tiebreaker at 8-7.
UL knotted things up at 8-all, but the Bulldogs held to take a 9-8 lead with Louisville going back on serve. There, both of Wynn's serve attempts landed deep, lifting the Bulldogs to a remarkable 3-6, 7-5, 1-0(8) comeback victory to send them to the Round of 16, where they will take on Wisconsin's 14th-ranked Chema Carranza and Josef Dodridge at 3 p.m. ET Friday.
"They were playing unbelievable doubles and it was super clean," Borges said. "Today was all about competing until the last point, and that's what we did."
"We just tried to stay in it and we waited for our chance," Rakic added. "When that chance came, we took it and it paid off."
Tickets
Tickets for the 2018 NCAA Tennis Championships can be purchased through the Wake Forest ticket office.
Live Video/Stats
All matches at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex will feature live scoringand live video.
MSU In The 2018 NCAA Singles & Doubles Championships
May 24, 2018 – Winston-Salem, N.C. (Wake Forest Tennis Complex)
Singles
Second Round– #23 Giovanni Oradini (MSU) def. #53 Felix Corwin (Minnesota) 7-6(6), 6-7(3), 6-2; #2 Nuno Borges [3] (MSU) def. #38 Skander Mansouri (Wake Forest) 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
Doubles
First Round– #1 Nuno Borges/Strahinja Rakic [1] (MSU) def. #18 Chris Morin-Kougoucheff/Parker Wynn (Louisville) 3-6, 7-5, 1-0(8).
ITA National rankings precede player names; tournament seeding in brackets
For more information on the Mississippi State men's tennis program, follow "HailStateMT" on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Players Mentioned
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