MSU Wins Six More At ITA Southern Regional

AUBURN, Ala. – Saturday was another successful day for Mississippi State at the ITA Southern Regional Championships.

The Bulldogs stacked up six more wins on the third day of the tournament and now have 13 total victories during the event. Three singles competitors and a pair of doubles teams are still unbeaten and will represent MSU in Sunday’s Round of 16.

Saturday’s action started in doubles where the Bulldogs won two of their three matches. Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes and Dusan Milanovic dominated Logan Haga and Matei Palcau of Jacksonville State 8-1 while Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez surpassed LSU’s Julien Penzlin and Alessio Vasquez 8-6.

Ferrer Guimaraes and Milanovic meet Joaquim Almeida and Braden Hannig of South Alabama while Jovanovic and Sanchez Martinez battle against Alabama’s Filip Planinsek and Andrii Zimnokh. Both of those matches are set to start at 2 p.m.

Mississippi State’s lone doubles loss on Saturday came as Marshall Landry and Nemanja Malesevic fell 8-4 to Jack Clements and Rostislav Halfinger of South Alabama.

Ferrer Guimaraes started the Bulldogs’ singles efforts off on a good note in the first round of the main draw on Saturday. The freshman secured his fourth-straight individual win of the tournament by downing UAB’s Noah Milage 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-0.

However, the former five-star recruit’s singles run came to an end with a second-round loss to Alabama’s Matias Ponce De Leon in an all-out donnybrook. Ponce De Leon won the first set 6-4 before Ferrer Guimaraes evened things with a 7-5 win in the second. The Crimson Tide sophomore edged out a third-set tiebreaker 7-6(4) to advance.

Jovanovic, ranked 68^th in singles, beat Tulane’s Billy Suarez 6-3, 6-2, Sanchez Martinez made short work of Marcel Volz of New Orleans 6-2, 6-1 and Radomir Tomic got the better of David Jeanne-Grandinot of Alabama State 7-6(4), 6-4 to reach the Round of 16.

Jovanovic is set to face Penzlin, Sanchez Martinez will meet LSU’s Stefan Latinovic and Tomic takes on Alabama’s 78^th-ranked Enzo Aguiard. All three matches are scheduled for Sunday at 10 a.m.

Auburn’s William Nolan earned a 6-4, 6-3 upset of No. 36 Milanovic in the second round on Saturday to keep the tournament’s…