Columbia, S.C. – No. 16 South Carolina men’s tennis fell 3-4 to No. 19 Mississippi State at home on Friday. The Gamecocks gave up the doubles point and were only able to win three of the six singles matches in the loss.
In doubles, Mississippi State claimed the point with No. 37 Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez defeating No. 19 Toby Samuel and Casey Hoole 6-1 from the top of the lineup and Nemanja Malesevic and Michal Novansky defeating Jelani Sarr and Sean Daryabeigi 6-3 at the No. 3 position.
In singles, James Story was quick to get a point back for the Gamecocks with a dominant win over Carles Hernandez. The Gamecock shut the Bulldog out in the first set 6-0 and came back to claim the second 6-1 for the victory.
Lucas Andrade da Silva was the next to claim a point for the home team and give South Carolina its first lead of the evening. The sophomore defeated Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes 6-2, 6-3 for his 18th win of the season.
The Bulldogs tied thing up again at 2-2 with Sarr falling to Martinez on Court 5, but Samuel got the lead back for South Carolina just minutes later by defeating No. 118 Malesevic 7-6(4), 6-1 to extend his win streak to seven straight matches.
The next point on the board went to Mississippi State to once again tie things up for the third time of the evening. On the No. 2 court, No. 105 Hoole fell 4-6, 4-6 to No. 39 Jovanovic in a match that was much closer than the score reflects. Both players were holding serve throughout but the Bulldog was able to luck into some timely breaks at the end of both sets to win it.
The final match on was between the freshman Daryabeigi and junior Dusan Milanovic at the No. 4 position. Daryabeigi claimed the first lead of the match thanks to a early break but Milanovic was able to break back to even things up and eventually claim another break to take the first set 7-5.
In the second set, Daryabeigi again broke early but Milanovic broke back to even things up. The two competitiors each held serve for the remainder of the set, forcing a tiebreaker. In the breaker the two again played close and Daryabeigi appeared to have the set won when leading 6-5 but the Bulldog claimed the next three points to win it 8-6, clinching the match.
The men’s tennis team will be in action next on Sunday, March 24 with a doubleheader against No. 51 Ole Miss and Furman. The Gamecocks and Rebels will play at 11:00 a.m. with the second match beginning at 4:00 p.m. or after and adequate rest period.
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