BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU men’s tennis team will open the 2024 dual season on Wednesday inside the LSU Tennis Complex with two matches on the slate. The Tigers will face UL-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns at noon CT and then take on the New Orleans Privateers at 5 p.m. CT.
Attendance to all LSU matches at the LSU Tennis Complex is free of charge. Attendees will be required to comply with the clear-bag policy held by the university.
UL-Lafayette (Jan. 24)
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New Orleans (Jan. 24)
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Series Histories
LSU is a perfect 22-0 against UL-Lafayette in past meetings. Last season when the two teams met at the LSU Tennis Complex, the Tigers claimed a 4-0 victory. LSU claimed the doubles point and had singles wins from Stefan Latinovic, Julien Penzlin and Ronald Hohmann.
Wednesday will be the 34th time that LSU and New Orleans will meet, with LSU claiming victory in the previous 33 matches. When the two teams met last year, LSU earned a 4-0 win thanks to the doubles point and singles victories from Chen Dong, Welsh Hotard and Benajmin Ambrosio
Season Outlook
The 2024 LSU men’s tennis team 11 athletes, five of which are newcomers to the squad for the 2023-24 season. 5th year seniors Stefan Latinovic and George Stoupe return alongside seniors Chen Dong, Welsh Hotard, Ben Koch and junior Julien Penzlin. The Tigers’ five newcomers are all freshmen with Brock Anderson, Rudy Ceccon, Charles Hobbs, Aleksi Lofman and Alessio Vasquez all competing in their first season of college tennis.
Seven out of the 11 players on the squad hail from abroad. Ceccon comes from France, Dong from Australia, Latinovic from Serbia, Lofman from Finland, Stoupe from New Zealand and Penzlin and Vasquez from Germany. The four Americans feature Hotard and Koch from Louisiana, Anderson from Washington and Hobbs from Virginia.
Tiger Tidbits
While Wednesday marks the first dual match in 2024 for the Tigers, the team was in action earlier this month in the Miami Invite on January 5 and 6. In Miami, multiple Tigers picked up singles wins and doubles wins against strong competition, but it was two big singles wins from LSU Tigers that was the focus of the weekend. Ceccon took down Texas’ Gilles-Arnaud Bailly, a former junior world no. 1 that boasts a UTR of 14.09, in straight sets, 6-2, 7-6. This win paired with Stoupe defeating No. 49 Pierre-Yves Bailly of Texas in a come-from-behind win in three sets, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Koch boasted the strongest singles record for the Tigers in fall tournaments, entering the dual season with a 13-6 mark across six different tournaments. He was joined in the double-digit mark by Ceccon, who posted a 10-5 record in four tournaments of play.
Following Wednesday’s doubleheader to open the dual season, the Tigers quickly turn around and head to South Carolina to participate in the 2024 ITA Kickoff Weekend. LSU will face Louisville at noon CT on Saturday, January 27, and face either South Carolina or Clemson on Sunday.