Several Bulldogs Secure Spots In Semifinals
October 19, 2024 | Men's Tennis
BATON ROUGE, La. – Mississippi State will be well represented in Sunday's semifinals at the ITA Southern Regional Championships.
Three of the four singles competitors to reach the semifinals are Bulldogs while two MSU tandems makeup the doubles semifinals.
No. 12 Petar Jovanovic and No. 107 Benito Sanchez Martinez made their way into the singles semifinals by beating a pair of ranked opponents from Alabama on Saturday. Jovanovic cruised to a 6-0, 6-3 victory over 118th-ranked Matias Ponce de Leon while Sanchez Martinez scored a 6-3, 6-3 win against No. 62 Andrii Zimnokh.
Jovanovic and Sanchez Martinez, who are also ranked as the nation's No. 1 doubles team, also secured a spot in the semifinals after a pair of wins on Saturday. The Bulldog juniors blew past Tulane's duo of Luc Hoeijmans and Luka Petrovic and also Alabama's Roan Jones and Damien Nezar by the same 8-4 score.
No. 60 Mario Martinez Serrano will be the other State player in the singles semifinals. Martinez Serrano defeated Noah Schlagenhauf of Ole Miss 6-4, 6-4 and will face teammate Sanchez Martinez on Sunday at 10 a.m. Jovanovic is set to take on Auburn's Billy Blaydes at that same time with a spot in the finals on the line.
Martinez Serrano will also compete in the doubles semifinals alongside partner Niccolo Baroni. Baroni and Martinez Serrano downed Matteo Lataste and Lun Obrul of Alabama State 8-3 and later LSU's Rudy Ceccon/Alessio Vasquez Gehrke 8-1 in the quarterfinals.
Baroni and Martinez Serrano square off against Auburn's Blaydes and William Nolan on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the same time Jovanovic and Sanchez Martinez meet LSU's 20th-ranked duo of Aleksi Lofman and Julien Penzlin.
Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes capped off a successful Saturday on the courts by claiming a 6-2, 6-4 victory in his singles pickup match against Louisiana's Samuel Kyjaci.
ITA Southern Regional ChampionshipsLSU Tennis Complex | Baton Rouge, La.
Oct. 19, 2024
Singles:
Main Draw Quarterfinals
No. 12 Petar Jovanovic (MSU) def. No. 118 Matias Ponce De Leon (Alabama): 6-0, 6-3
No. 60 Mario Martinez Serrano (MSU) def. Noah Schlagenhauf (Ole Miss): 6-4, 6-4
No. 107 Benito Sanchez Martinez (MSU) def. No. 62 Andrii Zimnokh (Alabama): 6-3, 6-3
Pick-up Matches
Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes (MSU) def. Samuel Kyjaci (Louisiana): 6-2, 6-4
Sandeep Mohandas (Samford) def. Michal Novansky (MSU): 6-4, 6-3
Oriol Fillat-Gimenez (Louisiana) def. Radomir Tomic (MSU): 6-2, 5-7, 1-0[7]
Doubles:
Main Draw Round of 16
Niccolo Baroni/Mario Martinez Serrano (MSU) def. Matteo Lataste/Lun Obrul (Alabama State): 8-1
No. 1 Petar Jovanovic/Benito Sanchez-Martinez (MSU) def. Luc Hoeijmans/Luka Petrovic (Tulane): 8-4
Billy Blaydes/Will Nolan (Auburn) def. Michal Novanky/Radomir Tomic (MSU):8-4
Main Draw Quarterfinals
No. 1 Petar Jovanovic/Benito Sanchez-Martinez (MSU) def. Roan Jones/Damien Nezar (Alabama): 8-4
Niccolo Baroni/Mario Martinez Serrano (MSU) def. Rudy Ceccon/Vasquez Gehrke (LSU): 8-3
For more information on the Bulldog men's tennis program, visit HailState.com or search for "HailStateMT" on X, Instagram and Facebook. Â
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