No. 5 Mississippi State Travels to Auburn for First SEC Road Test of the Season

Sunday, March 1 at 12 p.m. CT

Auburn, Ala. | Yarbrough Tennis Center

Match 13

No. 5 Mississippi State vs No. 18 Auburn

Watch Live | Live Stats | X/Twitter

AUBURN, Ala. – No. 5 Mississippi State heads to the Plains this weekend to face No. 18 Auburn in a key SEC showdown. The Bulldogs enter the contest riding a 12-match win streak over Auburn, the longest in the series.

State holds a 36-21 advantage all-time over Auburn and a 16-10 mark against the Tigers on the road, including a 4-2 victory in their last trip to Auburn in 2024.

Under head coach Matt Roberts, the Bulldogs have dominated the rivalry. State and Auburn have met 11 times during Roberts' tenure in Starkville, with Mississippi State winning every matchup. Earlier this season, the Bulldogs handed Auburn its only loss of the year during ITA Kickoff Weekend in Starkville.

Auburn enters the match ranked No. 18 nationally and features three players in the ITA singles rankings: No. 56 Amirkhamza Nasridinov, No. 84 Manel Lazaro Juncadella and No. 86 Billy Blaydes. In doubles, the Tigers boast the No. 20 tandem of brothers Billy Blaydes and Freddy Blaydes.

Mississippi State Notes

• Head Coach Matt Roberts holds the record for most wins in program history with 222 wins at the helm.

• The Bulldogs picked up their first top-five victory of the season defeating No. 4 Stanford 4-3 at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.

• States's most recent ranked victory came in SEC play over No. 37 Vanderbilt at home.

• Mississippi State opened the 2026 season with four consecutive road sweeps before returning home to sweep Santa Clara and Auburn at the ITA Kickoff Weekend.

• The Bulldogs are .500 and above at every singles position through the opening stretch of the season.

• Mississippi State earned its second and third ranked victories of the year at the ITA National Team Indoors over No. 4 Stanford and No. 23 Florida.

• Four Bulldogs are ranked in the ITA singles rankings, led by Petar Jovanovic at No. 10, the second highest-ranked player in the SEC.

• The Bulldogs have two doubles teams in the ITA Rankings for the first time this season. No. 4 Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez are the highest ranked SEC duo.

• Seniors Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez return as ITA Doubles All-Americans, while Jovanovic also earned ITA Singles All-American honors after reaching the NCAA Individual Championships quarterfinals.

• Mississippi State posted 25 wins in 2025, tying the 1979 team for the most single-season victories in program history.

• In 2025, Benito Sanchez Martinez set single-season program records for dual-match wins in both singles and doubles.

• Jovanovic and Sanchez Martinez are the winningest doubles pair in program history, surpassing Nuno Borges and Strahinja Rakic by nine victories.

• The Bulldogs return eight letterwinners from last season's NCAA quarterfinal squad.

• Mississippi State is in its 102nd season as a program, with an all-time record of 1,120-646-8.

Mississippi State Record Book Watch

•Petar Jovanovic sits at 186 career wins (singles and doubles). He trails the all-time leader, Nuno Borges by three wins.

• Jovanovic has 87 career doubles wins, making him third-most all-time. He sits just 10 wins away from Laurent Miquelard's (1992-95) total of 97.

• Jovanovic currently has 57 career dual match doubles wins. He is just eight wins away from breaking Ramskogler's total for the for the most all-time.

• Jovanovic is now 2nd all-time in career singles wins with 114. He is now eight wins away from overtaking Nuno Borges as the all-time singles wins leader.

• Mario Martinez Serrano is just two wins away from reaching 100 career singles wins.

Mississippi State in the ITA Rankings

Team Ranking – 5th

Singles

No. 10 – Petar Jovanovic

No. 43 – Mario Martinez Serrano

No. 47 – Benito Sanchez Martinez

No. 55 – Bryan Hernandez Cortes

Doubles

No. 4 - Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez

No. 47 – Mario Martinez Serrano and Michal Novansky

Series History vs. Auburn

• Mississippi State is 36-21 all-time against the Tigers.

• The Bulldogs are 16-10 against Auburn on the road.

• Mississippi State has won 12 consecutive meetings, the Bulldogs' longest streak.

• State' last trip to the plains was a 4-2 win over the Tigers in 2024.

• The Bulldogs and Tigers have met 11 times under head coach Matt Roberts; he has won every matchup.

• Mississippi State handed Auburn their only loss of the season during the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Starkville.

For the most up-to-date information on the Bulldogs, follow MSU Men's Tennis on Twitter, like them on Facebook and join them on Instagram by searching for "HailStateMT"

– HailState.com –

Click here to read article