Bulldogs Return Home Against Alabama

STARKVILLE – After back-to-back road trips with matches in four different states, Mississippi State's men's tennis team returns home to face Alabama on Friday at 3 p.m.

It will be the 33^rd-ranked Bulldogs first match at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre in 19 days.

MSU leads the overall series against the Crimson Tide 36-25, including a 17-12 record in Starkville. The Bulldogs have won 11 of the last 12 in the series including the last meeting 4-1 at the 2021 SEC Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

State enters the match against the Crimson Tide with an 11-8 overall record and a 1-5 record in Southeastern Conference play after falling on the road to last week's No. 1 team, Florida.

During that match against the Gators, the doubles duo of Florian Broska and Gregor Ramskogler downed the now 11^th-ranked Florida tandem of Sam Riffice and Ben Shelton in a 6-3 decision.

The latest ITA rankings include two ranked singles players from Mississippi State. Broska is currently ranked 39th and Nemanja Malesevic comes in at No. 72.

Broska and Malesevic each own five victories over ranked opponents this spring. Broska's 95 career singles wins are the seventh-most in school history while Malesevic has won four of his last five matches and leads the team with 14 victories during dual match play.

Malesevic also makes up half of a doubles tandem with Davide Tortora that has won seven of their last nine decisions together.

Alabama enters Friday's match with a 5-12 overall record and is 0-4 record in SEC play. The Crimson Tide split a doubleheader at home on Sunday, losing 4-2 to LSU before bouncing back with a 4-3 victory over Drake.

Alabama's top singles player, Filip Planinsek, is No. 112 in the latest ITA rankings. Planinsek is also part of the 44^th-ranked doubles team with partner German Samofalov.

Broska defeated Planinsek 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(4) back in October as part of the MSU Bulldog Invitational.

The Crimson Tide have already visited Starkville once during dual match play, participating in the ITA Kickoff Weekend but did not square off against Mississippi State. Alabama went 0-2 at that event, losing 4-0 to both Kentucky and Arkansas.

For more information on the Bulldog men's tennis program, visit HailState.com or search for "HailStateMT" on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Bulldogs Return Home Against Alabama

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Players Mentioned

Florian Broska

Nemanja Malesevic

Gregor Ramskogler

Davide Tortora

Mississippi State University Athletics