TUSCALOOSA, Ala., – Mississippi State’s men’s tennis doubles teams could not have been much better than the performance they showcased at the ITA Southern Regional on Friday.
The Bulldogs were dominant, posting a perfect 4-0 record in the opening round of doubles during the event hosted by the University of Alabama.
Patrick Lazo and Seth Richey started the doubles momentum with their 8-5 victory over UAB’s Kaustubh Holcomb and Vojtech Podzemny. Gregor Ramskogler and Benito Sanchez Martinez followed suit with an 8-6 win against Matthew Armbruster and Lillian Dubois of New Orleans.
Carles Hernandez and Nemanja Malesevic continued the trend by downing UAB’s Georgios Nouchakis and Athanasios Spyropoulos 8-3. Petar Jovanovic and Ewen Lumsden closed out the evening by defeating Laclan Brain and Chris Zhang of North Alabama 8-4.
But doubles weren’t the only place the Bulldogs found success on Friday. Richey, a redshirt sophomore, collected his first career singles win with a 7-6(4), 4-6, 1-0(9) victory over Louca Bertone of Alabama State in a consolation match early that morning.
Lazo lost his consolation contest to Troy’s Yeray Andres Pastor. Lazo took the first set 7-5 but fell in the second 6-1 and dropped the super tiebreaker 10-7.
State continues play on Saturday with Lazo and Richey kicking things off against Alabama’s No. 33 team of Filip Planinsek and German Samofalov at 9 a.m. Planinsek and Samofalov are the top-seeded tandem of the tournament and received a bye into the second round.
Ramskogler and Sanchez Martinez will also hit the court at 9 a.m. taking on the Crimson Tide team of Joao Ferreira and Roan Jones. Also starting at the same time will be Hernandez and Malesevic against Tulane’s Rafael De Alba and Luka Petrovic.
Jovanovic and Lumsden get going at 9:30 a.m. against LSU’s Stefan Latinovic and Nick Watson.
Main draw singles play also starts on Saturday. Jovanovic is scheduled to meet Auburn’s Alejandro Moreno at 11 a.m. Sanchez Martinez will battle Omar Morsy of Nicholls State, also at 11 a.m.
Ramskogler takes on Troy’s Noah Martens at 1 p.m. while Lumsden, Hernandez and Malesevic await their opponents after receiving a first-round bye. Lumsden is scheduled to play at 3 p.m. while Hernandez and Malesevic take their respective courts at 5 p.m.
Lumsden will meet the winner between Jones and David Jeanne-Grandinot of…
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