No. 12 Jovanovic Advances At ITA All-American
September 26, 2024 | Men's Tennis
TULSA, Okla. – Mississippi State's Petar Jovanovic secured a singles victory in the opening round of the main draw consolation bracket to move on at the ITA All-American Championships on Thursday.
The 12th-ranked Jovanovic showed off his talent against Maxwell Smith, cruising past the Clemson senior in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2. Jovanovic advances to play No. 70 Alexander Bernard of Ohio State in the second round of the main draw consolation on Friday at 9 a.m.
Later Thursday afternoon, the nation's No. 1 doubles tandem of Jovanovic and fellow junior Benito Sanchez Martinez were pushed to their limits by No. 21 Hugo Hashimoto and Michael Zheng from Columbia in the second round of the main draw.
The match was nip-and-tuck right from the beginning with Jovanovic and Sanchez Martinez prevailing 6-4 in the opening set only to see things evened in the second as the Columbia tandem edged out a tiebreaker 7-6(6). Unlike Wednesday when Jovanovic and Sanchez Martinez won a third set super tiebreaker, the Bulldog duo was unable to duplicate that success despite being up 7-4.
Hashimoto and Zheng rallied to win six of the next seven points to secure the upset and win 1-0[8].
ITA All-American ChampionshipsMichael D. Case Tennis Center | Tulsa, Okla.
Sept. 26, 2024
Singles:
Main Draw Consolation First Round
No. 12 Petar Jovanovic (MSU) def. Maxwell Smith (Clemson): 6-1, 6-2
Doubles:
Main Draw Second Round
No. 21 Hugo Hashimoto / Michael Zheng (Columbia) def. No. 1 Petar Jovanovic / Benito Sanchez Martinez (MSU): 4-6, 7-6(6), 1-0[8].
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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Players Mentioned
