Men’s tennis starts spring season 2-1, defeats rival South Alabama

The Troy men’s tennis team started its spring schedule with two wins and a loss in the Florida State Invitational in Tallahassee on Saturday.

The Trojans started off with a narrow, 4-3 team win over Mercer before falling to fellow Sun Belt foe Georgia State 0-4. Troy finished off its weekend of competition with a 4-2 win over in-state rival South Alabama to clinch third place in the tournament.

Troy swept the Mercer Bears in doubles play, winning all three games in dominant fashion. Hassan Ndayishimye and Andre Baldo picked up a 6-3 victory, while Pablo Moreno and Andy Lau won in a slightly closer 5-4 decision.

Filip Mansson and Jaiqi Duan rounded out the first set of doubles against Mercer with another 6-3 Trojan win.

In singles competition against the Bears, Moreno started off the Trojans’ wins with a victory in two sets, followed by a hard-fought victory for Amer Bedwan. The freshman from Montgomery won his match in three sets by scores of 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-3.

Ndayishimye won his singles match in three sets, 5-7, 6-2 and 7-6(4) to round out the Trojans’ singles competition against Mercer.

Troy found little success to match that of its first round of matches, struggling to win sets against the Panthers of Georgia State.

The Trojans dropped their first two doubles matches of the day, and finished the day with an unfinished doubles match. Singles play fared much the same for Troy as it lost three of its six singles matches. The other three went unfinished.

The Men of Troy bounced back on the second day of play, however, winning two of three doubles matches against conference rival South Alabama.

Lau and Moreno won their match 6-4, while Baldo and Ndayishimye capped doubles play with a 6-3 win.

In singles play, the two sides were equally matched, resulting in a 3-3 draw in singles matches. Moreno and Bedwan started Troy off with wins in two sets for each, while Lau took down the Jaguars’ Clement Marzol in a pair of 6-3 sets.

The men’s team will have a quick turnaround and a busy schedule next week, facing Elon University and North Carolina State on the road this Friday.