Men's Tennis Hosts Brown, Bellarmine in Saturday Doubleheader

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State continues the 2023 dual season this weekend, hosting a doubleheader against Brown and Bellarmine in East Lansing on Saturday, Jan. 21.

The Spartans will face the Bears at noon ET and continue the matchday against the Knights at 4 p.m. ET. Live scoring will be available on MSUSpartans.com

MSU comes into the weekend having dropped its first two duals of the season to ranked opponents, falling 6-1 to No. 25 Middle Tennessee and 4-3 to No. 24 Auburn. However, the Spartans have started strong in doubles play with Freshman Ozan Baris and sophomore Max Sheldon starting the season 2-0 with a top-30 win against Middle Tennessee and a 6-1 victory over Auburn's doubles pair of Finn Murgett and Raul Dobai.

Several Spartans enter the weekend having picked up their first singles victories in the narrow loss to No. 24 Auburn. Baris, ranked at No. 26 after the fall season, earned his first singles victory this season in straight sets over No. 66 Tyler Stice. Anthony Pero picked up a singles win defeating Alejandro Moreno in straight sets and Max Sheldon picked up a win over No. 110 Will Nolan in three sets.

Brown comes into the weekend having swept its season-opening dual against Quinnipiac, 7-0, on Thursday, Jan. 19. The Bears, who defeated the Bobcats for the third-consecutive year, opened the dual taking two team points in doubles play with the paring of Alex Finkelstein and Noah Hernandez defeating Quinnipiac's Shaurya Sood and Kemal Karagozoglu without dropping a game in No. 1 doubles. Brown continued to impress in singles play with five of the six singles matches being won in straight sets.

Brown comes into the spring returning its wins leader from the 2021-22 season, Niraj Komatineni, who amassed 29 combined wins went 7-4 in No. 2 singles and had four No. 1 doubles wins. Among the six new faces in the Bears squad is the aforementioned Finkelstein, who comes to Brown as a sophomore transfer from Columbia University and was a five-star prospect out of high school. Both Komatineni and Finkelstein won their opening matches in straight sets.

Bellarmine heads to the mitten state having dropped its first two duals of the season to Northern Kentucky and Louisville. The Knights have two singles victories this season with Freshman Vineet Ramesh and Matthew Nice leading the way to start the spring season.

Ramesh, after going 8-1 in the fall season, earned a victory over Northern Kentucky's Emilio Bravo. Nice became the first Knight to beat a ranked opponent after defeating No. 61 Matthew Fung out of Louisville in straight sets.

Ramesh and Nice are part of a Bellarmine squad that is led by senior Paul Reynolds, who led the team in the 2021-22 season with 11 doubles wins. The Knights are also headlined by sophomore Jack Batchelor, who was selected to the ASUN All-Freshman team in the 2021-22 season after leading the team in singles victories with 16.

Saturday's dual will also be a homecoming for Bellarmine head coach Will Davis, who returns to East Lansing having played for MSU from 2009-14. Davis amassed 51 singles wins and 30 doubles victories while also being voted captain twice. Davis was also part of the Spartans' first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance during the 2012-13 season.

Up next, the Spartans will have a week to prepare for a trip to Tuscaloosa, Alabama as they take on the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday, Jan. 28.