Friday Home Doubleheader Next for No. 19 Men's Tennis

EAST LANSING, MICH. – The nation's 19th ranked Spartans will play host to a double header against Ball State and Boise State on Friday, Feb. 2 at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. respectively in the MSU Indoor Tennis Center.

The Spartans will start a six-match homestand that includes another double header Sunday against a talented Middle Tennessee State team and Bellarmine.

MSU will be without freshman Aristotelis Thanos who after snagging two decisive wins Sunday against UC Santa Barbara Sunday, departed for his homeland Greece for the Davis Cup, known as the World Cup of tennis, where he will represent his native nation alongside the likes of World No. 7 Stefanos Tsitsipas on Feb. 3-4.

Scouting Ball State
Ball State will enter the matchup 3-2, most recently falling at Indiana on Wednesday, 0-4. Longtime Spartans head coach of 31 seasons from 1992-2022, Gene Orlando, returns to East Lansing as a Volunteer Assistant on the Cardinals staff with his son, Vince, a graduate student on the team.

Series History vs. Ball State
Michigan State leads Ball State with a 22-10 record all-time, 13-3 at home. The Spartans have won 16 straight against the Cardinals, dating back to the 2006-07 season.

Scouting Boise State
The Broncos are 3-1 on the season going into the night cap match. Last weekend at the ITA Kickoff Weekend Indoor Nationals regional Boise State knocked off Oregon, 4-3, but fell to national No. 1 Ohio State 0-4.

Boise State has one representation on both the ITA singles and doubles rankings. In singles, senior Sam Sippel is ranked 40th while the pairing of Jan Luca Marquardt and Kyvan Rietkerk are ranked No. 54 in doubles.

Series History vs. Boise State
The Spartans are 1-3 all-time against Boise State. The last time the two sides met, Michigan State was victorious 5-2 in what has been the only other meeting of the two teams in East Lansing.

Still Perfect
Seven Spartans remain undefeated in singles play and of the seven doubles teams that have notched wins, five are also yet to drop a set.

Sebastien Collard leads the way for the deep MSU lineup, 4-0 in singles in his first season in the Green and White with a hand in a pair of wins in doubles so far in the campaign. The other grad transfer, Ronald Hohmann III, moved to 3-0 in doubles play.

Last Week in Spartan Men's Tennis
Second year head coach Harry Jadun has his team at 4-0 for the first time in his tenure after going 2-0 last weekend on the road with quality wins over Pepperdine and UC Santa Barbara. The Spartans were slotted at No. 19 in the ITA Rankings, a new program-high for the third consecutive week.

Sheldon Settles Score for Second Day in a Row – 1/29
After the Spartans took the doubles point, Pepperdine and Michigan State would exchange blows in the first four singles spots on Monday afternoon. No. 23 ranked Edward Winter took down the nation's No. 12 Ronald Hohmann and the freshman Taym Alazmeh fell to Pepperdine's Pietro Fellin, seeing the Waves go up 2-1.
No. 6 ranked Ozan Baris would even it at two-a-piece with a 6-3, 6-2 win shortly before graduate student Sebastien Collard reclaimed the lead with a straight set victory of his own.
The ITA's No. 59 ranked Sheldon would then battle to a 7-5, 7-6 [8-6] win at the No. 5 singles spot, marking the second day in a row that Sheldon clinched Michigan State's victory at 4-2 (later 5-2).

Spartan Win Five Consecutive Matches to Clinch Over UCSB – 1/28
In the first road match of the season on Jan. 28, the Spartans found themselves down 2-0 to UC Santa Barbara. The No. 12 ranked Ronald Hohmann, Sebastien Collard and Aristotelis Thanos would all respond quickly with straight-set victories, putting the Spartans up 3-2.

It was the 59^th ranked Max Sheldon, in his first match of the season, who would battle to a 6-4, 6-4 win to seal the victory for MSU.

With the match between MSU and UCSB already decided at 4-2, both sides decided to let national No. 6 Ozan Baris and No. 19 Masjuan battle out the last point at the No. 1 singles spot. Despite dropping the first set narrowly at 5-7, Baris, also in his first match of the season, took the second set 6-4. In the tiebreak Baris found himself down again, fighting back from 5-2 to win MSU's fifth point at 5-7, 6-4, (10-7).

Fall Competition Accolades

20 total ranked wins
7 wins over top-25 opponents
15 ranked singles wins between 4 players
3 Doubles Titles
ITA Fall National Championships Doubles Title (Sheldon/Baris, Nov. 5)
Milwaukee Tennis Classic Doubles Title (Sheldon/Collard, Sep. 24)
Gamecock Ranked Invite Doubles Title (Baris/Hohmann, Sep. 17)
Battle in the Bay Singles Title & Runner-Up (Baris & Hohmann, Sep. 24)
ITA All-American Championships Singles Semifinalist (Baris, Oct. 7)

Beginning the Season with Historic Rankings
Entering the season, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association slotted MSU as the No. 24 team in the nation in the preseason rankings, the first time in program history the Spartans have been named inside the top 25 since the ITA began compiling rankings in 1981.

Not only was the No. 25 team ranking a program-best but a national-high eight Spartans are ranked in the ITA's singles and doubles player rankings. The four ranked doubles teams is also tied for the most in the country from one program.

The No. 2 doubles ranking for Max Sheldon and Ozan Baris is the highest ever for a Spartan duo. Baris and Hohmann's No. 6 and No. 12 singles rankings are also MSU-best individual rankings.

Spartans in ITA DI Men's Tennis Rankings
Singles

No. 6 – Ozan Baris
No. 12 – Ronald Hohmann III
No. 59 – Max Sheldon
No. 116 – Graydon Lair

Doubles

No. 2 – Max Sheldon/Ozan Baris
No. 29 – Sebastien Collard/Max Sheldon
No. 41 – Ozan Baris/Ronald Hohmann III
No. 45 – Ronald Hohmann III/Sebastien Collard

Spectator Info

Admission is free to all spectators
Plan to arrive early for our new player introductions as we light up court one
In the 6 p.m. match vs. Boise State, we will hold a ceremony between doubles and singles, celebrating 2023 All-Americans Max Sheldon and Ozan Baris

Please note Michigan State University is introducing a walk-through metal detector at the MSU Indoor Tennis Center. This new addition adds to the university's already-existing expansive safety and security portfolio. When entering the building, guests will not have to initially remove items from their pockets unless the metal detector alarms. In this case, guests will be checked individually with a security wand.

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Players Mentioned

Taym Alazmeh

Ozan Baris

Sebastien Collard

Ronald Hohmann

Graydon Lair

Max Sheldon

Aristotelis Thanos