MSU Men’s Tennis Freshman Danial Rakhmatullayev Picks Up Second Big Ten Accolade of the Season
4/9/2025 4:15:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Rakhmatullayev Earns Second Big Ten Honor in Standout Freshman Campaign
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State men's tennis freshman Danial Rakhmatullayev earned his second Big Ten Conference award, garnering Freshman of the Week honors as announced by the conference office Wednesday.
This is Rakhmatullayev's second conference accolade of the season, when he won the B1G Player of the Week award back on October 30, 2024.
Rakhmatullayev, a native of Aktau, Kazakhstan, picked up this recent award with his stellar performance against Northwestern and Illinois this past weekend.
In a 6-1 victory over Northwestern, Rakhmatullayev teamed with senior Max Sheldon and secured the doubles point for the Spartans with a dominant 6-2 victory over Max Bengtsson and Vincent Yang of Northwestern. Rakhmatullayev extended the Spartans' lead with an impressive 7-5, 6-2 singles win against Vincent Yang from Northwestern.
Against Illinois, Rakhmatullayev and his doubles partner cruised past Illinois' Jeremy Zhang and Mathis Debru with a commanding 6-1 win in doubles play, for MSU's first win of the day and boosting the Spartans to the doubles point on the way to the 4-0 upset sweep over the No. 24 Illini on Sunday.
With this award, Michigan State ties UCLA with the most B1G Freshman of the Week awards in the inaugural season of the honor, with three each for both the Spartans and Bruins.
Rakhmatullayev is joined by five fellow Spartans with B1G awards this season. Senior Max Sheldon earned the conference's first honor of the season on Sept. 25, while junior Ozan Baris collected the accolade on Oct. 16, before Rakhmatullayev picked up the award on Oct. 30. MSU's spring season award collection started on Jan. 22 when sophomore Aristotelis Thanos earned the Spartans' first of the spring.
Freshman Matthew Forbes earned his Freshman of the Week award back on February 5, while freshman Vuk Radjenovic picked up the award on March 26.
Rakhmatullayev and the Spartans hit the road to the West Coast as they head to Los Angeles, California, to take on No. 30 USC on Friday, April 11 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT, and No. 27 UCLA on Sunday, April 13 at 3 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. PT.
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