Bjelica Earns SEC Player Of The Week Honors
On Friday, Bjelica topped Kentucky's 88th-ranked Bruno Agostinelli 6-2, 6-2 which gave MSU a 3-1 lead in the match. On Sunday, Bjelica and partner Philippe Frayssinoux were victorious at #1 doubles which clinched the doubles point for State. Bjelica followed by defeating Vanderbilt's 63rd-ranked Ryan Preston 6-1, 7-5 at #1 singles, clinching the win for the Bulldogs. Currently, Bjelica is 22-10 overall in singles this season. The Belgrade, Serbia, native has won six consecutive singles matches and nine of his last ten. With the two wins this weekend, Bjelica also moved to 10-1 this season at the #1 singles position and is now 5-1 in conference play.
The honor for Bjelica marks the 11th time a Bulldog has won the award since it was initiated for tennis in 2000. He joins Jeremy Bayon, Marco Baron, Rene-Charles Combette, Romain Ambert, Luiz Carvalho, Florent Girod and Pierre Mouillon who have earned the honor.
Bjelica and the rest of the Bulldogs will be back in action Friday, traveling to Fayetteville, Ark., to face Arkansas in a 2 p.m. match. State will then return home to face LSU on Sunday at 1 p.m. in conjunction with Super Bulldog Weekend on the MSU campus.