No. 22 MSU Ready for Ranked SEC Weekend Slate

Thursday, March 6

Austin, Texas

6 p.m.

Mississippi State

Texas

Photo by: Mississippi State Athletics

No. 22 MSU Ready for Ranked SEC Weekend Slate

March 05, 2025 | Men's Tennis

Live Video: Texas Live Stats: Texas Live Stats/Video MSU - Oklahoma Match Notes

By: Peyton Burkhalter, Student Assistant

A week removed from their dominating 6-1 victory over LSU at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre, the 22^nd-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs will take on two tough opponents.
The 12-2 Bulldogs (2-1 SEC) will take on the Texas Longhorns (12-2, 3-0 SEC), the fourth-ranked team in the nation, at the Texas Tennis Center at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 6.
After traveling on the road for one match, MSU will come back home to face another ranked SEC opponent in the No. 16 Oklahoma Sooners (9-3, 2-1 SEC) on Saturday, March 8, at 1 p.m.

Rankings: Singles – MSU - Benito Sanchez Martinez (72), Petar Jovanovic (88), Mario Martinez Serrano (92), Niccolo Baroni (125) Texas – Timo Legout (7), Sebastian Gorzny (13), Jonah Braswell (39), Pierre-Yves Bailly (67) Oklahoma – Oscar Lacides (76) Doubles – MSU – Jovanovic/Sanchez Martinez (4), Baroni/Martinez Serrano (29) Texas – Lucas Brown/Legout (10) Oklahoma – Lacides/Bruno Nhavene (39)

Series History:
MSU leads the series against Texas 5-3, and they are 1-0 in Starkville. State has won three of the past four match ups dating back to 1996.
The Bulldogs are also ahead in the series against Oklahoma 3-2 and are 1-0 in Starkville.

Last Meeting:
The last meeting with Texas came in 2018 at the NCAA Championships in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where the Bulldogs defeated the Longhorns 4-1. Nuno Borges, currently world number 36, and several other Mississippi State alumni contributed to that victory to advance to the Quarterfinals.
MSU defeated Oklahoma in the ITA Kickoff Weekend 4-0 in Starkville before the Covid-19 virus spread around the world in 2020. It is their first and only meeting in Starkville, however, a second one is around the corner on Saturday.

Last Time Out:
Mississippi State defeated LSU in their home opener last Thursday, February 27, 6-1. No. 10 Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez defeated No. 27 Aleksi Lofman and Julien Penzlin 6-2 to start off the day, and then No. 29 Niccolo Baroni and Mario Martinez Serrano bested Andrej Loncarevic and Sasa Markovic 6-3 to clinch the doubles point for MSU.
Those same four won their matches in singles while Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes also tacked on a singles victory.

MSU Leaders:
Overall singles wins – Baroni (15), Ferrer Guimaraes (15), Martinez Serrano (15), Jovanovic (14) Singles wins vs. ranked opponents – Sanchez Martinez (7) Match clinches – Martinez Serrano (4), Ferrer Guimaraes (3). Overall doubles wins – Jovanovic/Sanchez Martinez (19) Doubles wins vs. ranked opponents – Jovanovic/Sanchez Martinez (7) Doubles clinches – Baroni/Martinez Serrano (6), Jovanovic/Sanchez Martinez (5).

Notes to Know:

Mississippi State is in its 102nd season of men's tennis. The program played its first tennis match in 1907 and has competed every year since 1946.
Matt Roberts is in his 13th season at MSU and 11th as the Bulldogs' head coach. Roberts has compiled a 199-80 overall record and a 128-25 mark at home. He is currently the longest-tenured head coach at State, and just needs one win this weekend to reach 200 career wins.
The Bulldogs have made 13 consecutive appearances in the NCAA Championships and have reached the Sweet 16 in five of the past six seasons.
Men's tennis posted a 3.68 grade point average during the fall semester. It was the highest team GPA of any sport at Mississippi State.
Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez are back in the top 5 of the ITA doubles rankings for the second time this year, as they jumped six spots from the last rankings to end up at No. 4.
Jovanovic and Sanchez Martinez have accumulated 45 career doubles victories together, which is good for fourth-most all time in school history. The All-American tandem just need two more to tie George Coupland and Artem IIyshin for third place.
Mario Martinez Serrano is currently on an eight-game win streak in singles, only trailing Michal Novansky with 11, that stretches all the way to the start of dual match play. Martinez Serrano is undefeated in SEC play, 3-0, and looks to add on to his win streak.
Martinez Serrano is also on match-clinching streak with two. He has clinched the match three times in the last four games while also clinching the doubles point with his teammate, Niccolo Baroni, four times in the last six games.
Sanchez Martinez is 6-3 against ranked opponents this season in singles, and has won three out of his last four match ups against them.