No. 38 Razorbacks On the Road for Three-Match Stretch

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The No. 38 Arkansas men’s tennis team (14-9, 3-6) is set for a three-match road trip this weekend as the Razorbacks face No. 17 Mississippi State (15-4, 5-3) on Thursday, March 27 at 3 p.m. ahead of a doubleheader on Saturday, March 29 against No. 31 Auburn (15-7, 5-5) at 1 p.m. and Alabama State (9-8) as 5:30 p.m.

The Hogs dropped their two SEC home matches this past weekend, falling to No. 4 Texas and No. 28 Georgia. In the first match versus the Longhorns, the tandem of Brendan Boland and Marino Jakic earned their fourth win this spring with a 6-4 victory over Bailly/Eriksson at the No. 3 position. No. 80 Lukas Palovic secured his second top-20 win and third ranked victory overall after a three-set win against No. 19 Gorzny on court two.

In Arkansas’ match versus the Bulldogs, the duo of No. 48 Connor Smillie and Jakub Vrba collected their fourth ranked victory this season after a 6-3 win over No. 26 Blaydes/Ratiu at the top spot. Palovic leads the Razorbacks with 13 dual singles victories while the pairing of Smillie/Vrba have a team-leading 10 dual doubles wins.

No. 17 Mississippi State is 15-4 overall and 5-3 in SEC play this year after a 4-3 victory against No. 18 South Carolina last Sunday. The Bulldogs are led by No. 38 Benito Sanchez Martinez and No. 100 Petar Jovanovic, who have played on courts one and two this spring and have combined to win 21 dual singles matches this season. No. 95 Mario Martinez Serrano, No. 117 Niccolo Baroni and Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes have all picked up at least 10 victories in singles competition this year. In doubles, the tandems of No. 4 Jovanovic/Sanchez Martinez and No. 39 Baroni/Martinez Serrano have both recorded at least 11 wins this spring.

No. 31 Auburn is coming off a 2-1 weekend at home with victories over No. 30 Kentucky and Alabama A&M along with a loss to No. 19 Tennessee. The Tigers are now 15-7 overall and 5-5 in SEC contests this season. Auburn is headlined by Will Nolan in the top spot and No. 60 Alex Frusina on court two. The Tigers are led in singles wins by Nicholas Heng, who has 13 dual victories this year while primarily playing at the No. 6 position. The duo of Billy Blaydes and Nolan are ranked No. 10 in the ITA doubles rankings and hold a 13-4 record together this spring.

Alabama State is 9-8 this season and most recently won its match last Saturday against Alcorn State. David Jeanne Grandinot leads the Hornets with nine singles victories on court one this year while Lun Obrul and Alexandre Verlaguet have each obtained seven singles wins. Gordan Fran Mileusni and Obrul head the Alabama State doubles lineup with a 10-6 record at the No. 1 position.

Live coverage of the Auburn match will be provided by Cracked Racquets as part of the SEC CrossCourt whip-around broadcast streamed on SEC Network+. Live stats & video links for the Mississippi State and Auburn matches are available on the men’s tennis schedule page.