The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Blazers Fall To No. 25 Mississippi State, 5-2
2/5/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Feb. 2, 2003
STARKVILLE, Miss. ----- The UAB men's tennis team (1-2) fell to No. 25 Mississippi State (2-1), 5-2, in Starkville on Sunday afternoon. The win was MSU's 10th straight over the Blazers.
The Bulldogs claimed the doubles point of the match with 8-2 victories at the No. 1 and 2 doubles positions. UAB's No. 1 doubles team, Ivan Andreev and Kristijan Mitrovski fell to State's Romain Ambert and Rene-Charles Combette while MSU's pair of Florent Girod and Jerome Le Belicard was victorious at No. 2 over UAB's Andre Maier and Dino Mancarella. At the No. 3 doubles position, the Blazers' Patrick Suhrbier and Sanzaruz Zaman defeated Matt Armstrong and Max Fomine in a tight match, 8-6.
Zaman continued his winning ways in singles, defeating Luc Maasdrop, 6-3, 6-4, in the No. 6 match. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough as the Bulldogs jumped out to a one-set lead in four of six contests, winning each of the four. At the No. 1 spot, UAB's Suhrbier fell to MSU's junior all-American, Ambert, 6-0, 6-1. The Bulldogs took a 3-0 lead following a 6-2, 6-2 win from Le Belicard over UAB's Andreev at No. 2. MSU clinched the match when Girod held off the Blazers' Mitrovski 6-3, 6-4 at the No. 4 spot. The Bulldogs tallied the final point at No. 3, as UAB's Maier fell to Fomine defeated in a three-set affair, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
At the No. 5 singles position, in the last match of the day, MSU's Matt Armstrong and UAB's Ruben Zrihen battled it out to the bitter end, in a match that lasted over three-and-a-half hours. After Zrihen took a close first set 6-4 and was serving for the second, Armstrong broke back and eventually forced a tiebreaker, which he won 7-4. The players battled another hour in the third, with Zrihen finally prevailing 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-4.
