STARKVILLE – Matt Roberts couldn’t have asked for a much better start to his 10th season as the head coach of Mississippi State men’s tennis.
Roberts’ 17th-ranked Bulldogs began the year by blanking both Northern Illinois (1-1) and Chattanooga (0-2) inside the Rula Tennis Pavilion on Sunday. MSU earned 7-0 shutouts in both matches and won 28 of the 29 completed sets on the afternoon.
“I thought today was a very good match for us to practice on focusing and having discipline from the first point until the end,” Roberts said. “I thought the guys did a good job of not relaxing and staying locked in.”
Roberts shuffled his lineup during the doubleheader allowing all eight of his healthy players a chance to compete in both singles and doubles on the day. His three freshmen were especially impressive in their first action at home.
In the opening match against Northern Illinois, freshman Marshall Landry teamed with veteran Nemanja Malesevic to clinch the doubles point with a 6-3 win against Saul Berdullas and Armin Koschtojan. The rookie momentum carried over to singles where Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes was the first off the court with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Sam Klein and later on Radomir Tomic took down Koschtojan 6-1, 6-4.
In the afternoon outing against Chattanooga, Ferrer Guimaraes and Tomic topped Gabiel Castillo and Jordan McClure 6-1 before Landry and Malesevic clinched their second doubles point of the day 6-3 over Cortland Grove and Kristof Kincses.
Tomic and Landry were the first two singles finishers in the second match. Tomic made short work of Kincses 6-0, 6-1 while Landry conquered Ethan Carr 6-1, 6-3.
“They looked pretty comfortable out there for their first dual match,” Roberts said of his freshmen. “Marshall did great in doubles and was very energetic in singles. Rob was firing it up down there in singles today. Rade and Rob did great in doubles. They’ve been playing really well in practice, so it was good to see them play well in a dual match.”
Malesevic, Carles Hernandez and Dusan Milanovic won both of their singles matches. Malesevic vanquished Vollbach 6-1, 6-3 to clinch the first match against the Huskies and also claimed a 7-6(5), 6-0 against Castillo of…
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