Mississippi State
Troy
No. 11 Bulldogs Set For Sunday Twin Bill
January 18, 2025 | Men's Tennis
STARKVILLE – No. 11 Mississippi State is off to a strong start to its dual match season.
The Bulldogs have won their first three contests by a combined score of 21-0 without dropping a single set. MSU will try to keep that success rolling on Sunday when it hosts Troy and Alabama State at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. respectively inside the Rula Tennis Pavilion.
Matt Roberts' squad opened the season with a 7-0 shutout of Samford last Sunday and subsequently knocked off Chattanooga by the same score during a doubleheader this past Friday.
No. 9 Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez have an opportunity to enter the top five of the program's all-time leaders in doubles victories. Jovanovic and Sanchez Martinez have racked up 39 wins together as a team, which is currently the sixth-best mark by a Bulldog tandem. They need two more victories to tie Jordan Angus and Malte Stropp (2013-14) for the fifth-most in Mississippi State history.
Jovanovic and Sanchez Martinez are not the only ranked doubles duo the Bulldogs have. They're accompanied by the 20th-ranked team of Niccolo Baroni and Mario Martinez Serrano. That quartet also makes up the ranked competitors in MSU's singles lineup led by Jovanovic (45), Baroni (72), Martinez Serrano (81) and Sanchez Martinez (103).
Sunday marks the first-ever meeting between Mississippi State and Troy in men's tennis. The Trojans are 1-2 on the year and currently riding high following a 6-1 home victory over Samford on Friday.
The Bulldogs are certainly not strangers to Alabama State. MSU is 6-0 all-time against the Hornets and have won those matches by a combined score of 27-0. The past three meetings in the series have come in the opening round of the NCAA Championships in Starkville in 2019, 2023 and 2024.
Mississippi State blanked ASU 4-0 to start off the 2024 Starkville Regional with current players Jovanovic, Sanchez Martinez, Michal Novansky, Dusan Milanovic and Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes all contributing wins to send the Bulldogs into the second round.
Alabama State enters Sunday's affair at 1-3 and coming off a 4-0 loss at No. 19 Alabama on Saturday. The Hornets' lone win was a 4-3 victory against Florida Gulf Coast last Sunday in Tallahassee, Florida.
For more information on the Bulldog men's tennis program, visit HailState.com or search for "HailStateMT" on X, Instagram and Facebook.
Players Mentioned
