Mississippi State
South Carolina
No. 15 MSU Opens SEC Championships In Quarterfinals
April 18, 2024 | Men's Tennis
BATON ROUGE, La., - Following a third-place finish in the conference standings and receiving a double-bye in the SEC Championships, No. 15 Mississippi State opens its postseason in the quarterfinals against 24th-ranked South Carolina on Friday at 2 p.m.
The 11th-seeded Gamecocks knocked off No. 6 seed Alabama 4-2 in the second round on Thursday afternoon.
Matt Roberts and the Bulldogs got the better of South Carolina on the road earlier this season. MSU rallied back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the then 16th-ranked Gamecocks 4-3 on March 22. The Bulldogs won the doubles point that day but quickly fell behind by dropping the first three singles matches.
Benito Sanchez Martinez, Petar Jovanovic and Dusan Milanovic reversed State's fortunes by securing the match on the final three courts with Milanovic clinching things in a tight 7-5, 7-6(6) match against Sean Daryabeigi.
Mississippi State enters the postseason with a 17-6 overall record and a 9-3 mark in league play. The Bulldogs posted a 7-2 record away from home and closed out the regular season by winning six of their last seven matches. They're coming off back-to-back 4-2 road victories at Alabama and Arkansas last weekend.
Jovanovic at No. 46 and Nemanja Malesevic at No. 56 headline MSU's singles lineup. Jovanovic tops the Bulldogs with 26 wins on the year, eight of which have come against ranked opponents. Malesevic has picked up 10 of his 13 singles victories from the No. 1 position this spring and is tied with Milanovic for the team lead with five match-clinchers on the year.
Malesevic's 103 career combined dual match wins is tied with Mark Jeffrey (1988-91) for 10th all-time in school history and his 59 dual match singles victories are the ninth-most in MSU's annals. He needs one more win to match former teammate Florian Broska (2018-22) for ninth in all-time dual match victories.
Jovanovic and Sanchez Martinez earned a career-high doubles ranking at No. 14 in the latest ITA release. The sophomore tandem have won seven of their last eight doubles decisions and clinched the doubles point in four of their last five matches. They have posted 20 total victories together this year.
South Carolina is 15-13 overall on the year and went 4-8 in SEC action during the regular season. The Gamecocks were 3-2 in neutral site matches this spring and posted a 7-6 mark in matches outside of Columbia.
Toby Samuel is South Carolina's top singles competitor at No. 15 nationally followed by No. 101 Casey Hoole. Jovanovic defeated Hoole 6-4, 6-4 during their meeting earlier in the year.
Hoole and Samuel also makeup South Carolina's lone ranked doubles duo at No. 17. Jovanovic and Sanchez Martinez prevailed 6-1 against the then 19th-ranked Gamecock twosome back in March.
The Bulldogs are 25-12 overall against South Carolina all-time and have won 13 out of the last 15 meetings. State is 3-1 against the Gamecocks in the SEC Championships, last meeting in the semifinals of the 2019 which was a 4-2 victory by the Bulldogs en route to winning the tournament.
Mississippi State is 34-31 all-time at the SEC Championships with three titles in 1996, 2018 and 2019 along with seven appearances in the finals.
For more information on the Bulldog men's tennis program, visit HailState.com or search for "HailStateMT" on X, Instagram and Facebook.
Players Mentioned
