Four Mississippi State men’s tennis players will compete across two ITA tournaments between November 5 and 8, with one Bulldog chasing a conference masters title in Georgia and three others battling for sectional honors in Florida, HailState.com reported.
Bryan Hernandez Cortes travels to Rome, Georgia, for the ITA Conference Masters Championship, while Diego Duran, Raphael Vaksmann and Luigi Valletta head to Tallahassee, Florida, for the ITA South Sectionals. The weekend marks the final fall competition before the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships later in November.
Hernandez Cortes enters the Rome tournament as the fourth seed and will represent the SEC after being selected from the conference, solidifying the junior’s status as one of the league’s elite players. The ITA Conference Masters features one representative from each conference plus five lottery selections. He opens play Thursday at 8:00 a.m. CT against Mihnea Petru Stanciu of Alabama A&M.
In Tallahassee, Vaksmann carries the second seed in the singles draw and faces Florida State’s Azariah Rusher on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. CT. Duran and Valletta team up for the doubles competition, opening at 1:30 p.m. CT against Georgia’s Maxime Dubouch and Noah Johnston.
The split itinerary sends the Bulldogs to two different postseason formats: the Conference Masters crowns an individual champion from across the conferences, while the South Sectionals offers a broader regional field where singles and doubles titles are contested separately. Hernandez Cortes’ selection to the Masters field reflects his standing within the SEC, while Vaksmann’s second seed in the sectionals underscores his position among the region’s top singles players.
These tournaments serve as the final tune-up before the NCAA Championships, giving the Bulldogs one last chance to fine-tune their games against top national competition before the season’s biggest stage. Hernandez Cortes will compete in Rome while the Tallahassee trio takes on the sectionals, the last scheduled fall tournaments before the NCAA Championships later in November.
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