EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State men’s tennis freshman Danial Rakhmatullayev (Daniel Rock-Ma-too-liev) has earned the Big Ten Player of the Week Award, announced by the conference office Wednesday afternoon.
This is Rakhmatullayev’s first weekly accolade as a Spartan, and he is the third different MSU player to garner recognition from the league office this season. He joins fellow Spartans, senior Max Sheldon, who won this award on September 25 and junior Ozan Baris, who was Co-Player of the Week with Michigan’s Gavin Young on October 16.
MSU has now earned or shared the award in three of the seven weeks, and no other school has earned the award more than once. While this is the first year of fall season part of the official season and the B1G recognizing Player of the Week Awards in the fall and spring, this is the first time that MSU has earned more than two weekly awards from the conference office in the same year, topping the two picked up last season.
Rakhmatullayev finished up his weekend competing at the Louisville Classic tournament held this past weekend, Oct 25-27.
During this tournament, Rakhmatullayev put three wins on the board for the Spartans, only losing one match the entire weekend.
Determined to bounce back from his loss on Friday, Rakhmatullayev dominated Russell Lokko from Louisville, securing a 6-4, 6-0 win.
He earned another victory for the Spartans, defeating Evan Duggal from Louisville 6-3, 6-2.
Rakhmatuellayev wrapped up the weekend tournament with an impressive 6-0, 6-3 win over Nice from Bellarmine.
Despite a tough loss to start, Rakhmatullayev rebounded with three consecutive wins, showcasing resilience and high-level performance throughout the weekend.
Rakhmatullayev and freshman Mitchell Sheldon will head to Notre Dame, Indiana for the Fighting Irish Mini Duals, Friday-Sunday, Nov. 1-3.
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