No. 6 Mississippi State Face Key SEC Road Tests at No. 35 Arkansas, No. 11 Oklahoma

Thursday, April 2

Fayetteville, Ark.

5:30 p.m.

Mississippi State

Arkansas

No. 6 Mississippi State Face Key SEC Road Tests at No. 35 Arkansas, No. 11 Oklahoma

April 01, 2026 | Men's Tennis

By: Tad Couch, Mississippi State Athletic Communications Student Intern

Thursday, April 2 at 5:30 p.m. CT
Fayetteville, Ark. | A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre
Match 22
No. 6 Mississippi State vs No. 35 Arkansas
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Saturday, March 4 at 12 p.m. CT
Norman, Okla. | A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre
Match 23
No. 6 Mississippi State vs No. 11 Kentucky
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STARKVILLE – No. 6 Mississippi State hits the road this weekend as the Bulldogs continue SEC play with a pair of ranked matchups, traveling to face No. 35 Arkansas on Thursday and No. 11 Oklahoma on Saturday.

Thursday's matchup features a meeting with Arkansas, where the Bulldogs have historically dominated the series. Mississippi State holds a 36-8 all-time advantage over the Razorbacks, including a 15-2 record in matches played on the road. The trip also marks a return for head coach Matt Roberts, who faces his alma mater in Fayetteville. The Bulldogs will look to continue their success in the series while adding another ranked win to their resume.

On Saturday, Mississippi State travels to Oklahoma for a top-15 showdown. The Bulldogs hold a 5-2 edge in the all-time series against the Sooners and enter the match riding a four-match win streak in the matchup. With both teams ranked inside the top 15, the contest presents another opportunity for Mississippi State to strengthen its position heading into postseason play.

Mississippi State Notes
• Petar Jovanovic holds the all-time program wins record for combined singles and doubles victories.
• Niccolo Baroni has been strong in singles play, with the highest Bulldog win percentage in singles.
• Benito Sanchez Martinez has played nine straight ranked singles matches, going 7-2.
• The doubles tandem of Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez is the highest ranked SEC duo.
• Niccolo Baroni, Benito Sanchez Martinez, Petar Jovanovic, Mario Martinez Serrano and Raphael Vaksmann have all reached double-digit singles wins this season.
• Head coach Matt Roberts is the program's all-time wins leader.
• The Bulldogs have secured 12 ranked wins this season
• Mississippi State has maintained a winning record across all singles positions throughout the season.
• Five Bulldogs appear in the ITA singles rankings, led by Petar Jovanovic at No. 9.
• 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.
• All of Mississippi States's conference victories have been over ranked opponents.
• 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 to secure a birth in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.
• 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 1,126-647-8.

Mississippi State Record Book Watch
• Jovanovic has 92 career doubles wins, making him third-most all-time. He sits just five wins away from Laurent Miquelard's (1992-95) total of 97.
• Jovanovic currently has 62 career dual match doubles wins. He is just three wins away from breaking Ramskogler's total for the for the most all-time.
• Jovanovic is now 4th all-time in career singles wins with 106. He is just two wins shy of 3^rd and Mihnea Nastase's total of 108 wins.

Mississippi State in the ITA Rankings
Team Ranking – 6th

Singles
No. 9 – Petar Jovanovic
No. 16 – Benito Sanchez Martinez
No. 63 – Mario Martinez Serrano
No. 67 – Niccolo Baroni
No. 121 – Bryan Hernandez Cortes

Doubles
No. 3 - Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez

Series History vs. Arkansas
• Mississippi State is 36-8 all-time versus Arkansas.
• The Bulldogs have won their last three meetings against the Razorbacks.
• The last time Mississippi State travelled to Fayetteville, it was a 4-2 victory for the Bulldogs.
• Matt Roberts is 11-1 all time versus Arkansas.

Series History vs. Oklahoma
• Mississippi State is 5-2 all-time vs. Oklahoma
• Matt Roberts is 4-1 all-time, against the Sooners.
• Roberts has won his last four games vs. Oklahoma as the head coach of the Dawgs.

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"

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