{"id":574018,"date":"2026-03-30T11:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T11:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/574018\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T11:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T11:01:09","slug":"msu-mens-tennis-outlasts-usc-and-ucla-to-stay-atop-big-ten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/574018\/","title":{"rendered":"MSU men\u2019s tennis outlasts USC and UCLA to stay atop Big Ten"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are weekends that test a team \u2014 and then there are weekends that define one. For Michigan State men\u2019s tennis, the latter unfolded in East Lansing, as the Spartans clawed past No. 24 USC in a 4-3 thriller before dismantling No. 20 UCLA, 4-2, delivering a high level of tennis across two emotionally charged matches.<\/p>\n

Friday began inauspiciously. MSU conceded the doubles point to USC, a familiar early deficit that quickly deepened into a 3-1 hole. The margin for error vanished, yet the Spartans found the clarity they were searching for in the chaos.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of the craziest matches I\u2019ve ever been a part of. Being down after the doubles point, being down 3-1\u2026 they came out really, really hot,\u201d head coach Harry Jadun said. \u201cFor the guys to pull through that really gave us a lot of confidence going on. It was really big for the program, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

What followed was less a comeback and more a slow reclamation\u2014of momentum, of composure, of belief. At the top of the lineup, Aristotelis Thanos embodied that shift, turning a narrow first-set loss into a statement of endurance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, Friday was a very, very high-level match. The guy was playing very good,\u201d Thanos said. \u201cI was up a break, then I lost a break, got broken again, lost the set \u2026 but the level was high even in the first set.\u201d<\/p>\n

That razor-thin margin defined the contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I just played a very bad game when I was 5-6 in the first set, serving,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s how the sport is\u2014you play one loose service game, and if the other guy is playing good and serving good, you can just lose the set.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what separates good players from match-winners is not perfection\u2014it is response. Thanos reset. So did the Spartans.<\/p>\n

\"20260327-mens-tennis-vs-usc-cs-2\" <\/p>\n

Sophomore Matthew Forbes of MSU men’s tennis returns the ball to his USC opponents in the MSU Tennis Center in East Lansing, MI on March 27, 2026.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Photo by
\n Cooper Schwartz<\/a>
\n | The State News<\/p>\n

Alongside him, Matthew Forbes authored a comeback of his own, while Ozan Baris imposed order in straight sets and Danial Rakhmatullayev battled through a three-set grind. The 4-3 victory was built on consistency\u2014each court tilting, one by one, back toward Michigan State.<\/p>\n

\u201cUSC\u2019s a team that\u2019s won 24 national championships. We have zero,\u201d Jadun said. \u201cThat\u2019s something we\u2019ve got to fight against every single day. We don\u2019t really have that in our confidence bank, so we\u2019ve got to trust the work we put in and really believe in ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Friday was about survival, Sunday was about assertion.<\/p>\n

Against UCLA, MSU inverted the script, capturing the doubles point in a match that was on a knife\u2019s edge. The deciding blow came in a tiebreak on Court 2, where Thanos and Mitchell Sheldon held their nerve, feeding off a crowd that grew louder with every point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the doubles point is huge,\u201d Thanos said. \u201cWhen you win the doubles point, the confidence you have for singles is way, way higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the match refused to settle into comfort. Thanos, once again at No. 1, stumbled out of the gate, dropping the first set 6-1 as UCLA dictated pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I started very slow. He was serving very good, didn\u2019t give me any rhythm to play,\u201d Thanos said. \u201cThen I kind of figured it out, got a break, and that\u2019s completely different. Once you get that momentum, it\u2019s easier to hold serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

That single break became a turning point\u2014not just in scoreline, but in control.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was just a game where I returned very good, and with big servers, that\u2019s kind of all you need,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce I got the break, everything was way easier for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

From there, the shift was decisive. Thanos surged through the next two sets, blending controlled aggression with touch at the net.<\/p>\n

\u201cI use my options a lot. I feel like my touch is pretty good,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been trying to use it since I was young, so I guess my childhood coach should get credit for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"20260327-mens-tennis-vs-usc-cs-12\" <\/p>\n

Redshirt senior Mitchell Sheldon of MSU men’s tennis celebrates his set win against USC in the MSU Tennis Center in East Lansing, MI on March 27, 2026.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Photo by
\n Cooper Schwartz<\/a>
\n | The State News<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Michigan State\u2019s depth once again surfaced. Danial Rakhmatullayev and Mitchell Sheldon delivered composed, straight-set victories, while the rest of the lineup absorbed pressure long enough for the team result to tilt decisively.<\/p>\n

Jadun pointed to that exact moment\u2014the swing from uncertainty to control\u2014as emblematic of the team\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the doubles point, we told them they had to take the momentum from it because UCLA was a little bit emotionally down,\u201d he said. \u201cWe split first sets, and then Thanos flipped his match in the second set, and that\u2019s huge. It gives everyone a little bit of breathing room.\u201d<\/p>\n

That breathing room, however slight, proved decisive.<\/p>\n

Beyond the weekend\u2019s results lies a longer arc.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just really got healthy, that was a big thing,\u201d Jadun said. \u201cAnd also, the perspective that the first half of the season gave us. We had to forfeit a match because we didn\u2019t have enough players. Guys had to step up, and even if we didn\u2019t get the wins, we got the experiences we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

That experience is now translating into execution.<\/p>\n

\u201cOzan and Thanos came back, everyone got bumped down in the lineup, and it made a huge difference in their confidence,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ve played tougher players, they\u2019ve beaten tougher players, and now they believe that.\u201d<\/p>\n

With consecutive wins over ranked opponents, Michigan State improved to 8-0 in the Big Ten and remains atop the standings. The Spartans will next face Washington as they begin their next set of road matches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are weekends that test a team \u2014 and then there are weekends that define one. For Michigan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-574018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}