Lansing Sun

In a closely contested match, the Michigan State men's tennis team, ranked 16th nationally, was narrowly defeated by the 19th-ranked Tennessee team with a score of 4-3. The event took place at the Goodfriend Tennis Center in Knoxville on Friday night.

Michigan State's record now stands at 4-2 for the season, with both losses occurring against top 25 teams on the road. Previously, they faced defeat against No. 2 TCU during the ITA Kickoff Weekend. The Spartans had begun their season positively with a victory over No. 7 Kentucky on January 17.

Tennessee improved to a record of 5-2 this year and has played three consecutive matches against Big Ten Conference opponents. They secured wins against Illinois and Michigan before facing Michigan State.

The Spartans saw victories in singles from freshman Matthew Forbes, junior Ozan Baris, and junior David Saye. Saye was first to secure a win for Michigan State by defeating Jan Kobierski of Tennessee in straight sets. Forbes and Baris followed suit after Tennessee had already clinched the overall win.

Michigan State experimented with new doubles pairings during this match. Baris partnered with freshman Mitchell Sheldon at No. 1 doubles; sophomore Taym Alazmeh teamed up with freshman Danial Rakhmatullayev at No. 2; and freshmen Forbes and Vuk Radjenovic paired up at No. 3 doubles.

The doubles competition saw intense matches, particularly for Forbes and Radjenovic who claimed an early victory for Michigan State with a quick win of 6-3. However, Tennessee captured the doubles point after Mitsui/Jesudason defeated Baris/Mitchell Sheldon in a tiebreaker, as did Moreno/Kotzen over Alazmeh/Rakhmatullayev.

In singles play, Forbes quickly won his first set but needed to battle through three sets to overcome Alan Jesudason of Tennessee in their match-up. Similarly, Baris also went through three challenging sets before defeating Alex Kotzen from Tennessee.

Despite efforts from Radjenovic and Alazmeh in their respective singles matches, they were bested by Jose Garcia and Alejandro Moreno of Tennessee.

Looking ahead, Michigan State will continue its road games as they travel to Clemson to face off against Clemson University on Sunday.