Two days later, the Spartans were prepping for the NCAA Tournament. The season had reached a historic high, but there was still tennis to play. When the collegiate season finally wound down after a 4-1 loss to South Carolina, the work didn't stop for a team with ambitions beyond college tennis.

But first, the Spartans had to deal with a complete demolition of their championship-winning team. 

Their first hit over the summer was former head coach Harry Jadun stepping down, opening the door for assistant coach Mike Flowers to take over coaching responsibilities in what he describes as "a dream come true."

Flowers was part of the program from 2004-2007 that reached as high as No. 3 in doubles and No. 25 in singles. After returning to MSU as an assistant coach in 2022, he quickly became an integral part of the program and was named the 2025 ITA Midwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year. Now in a bigger role, he seeks to keep the culture intact. 

“We don't want to be a coaching staff where it’s just, ‘Do what we say,’ and then you leave here, and that’s it,” Flowers said. “It’s always been a family environment with Spartan tennis, going back to when Harry (Jadun) was the head coach and even to Coach (Gene) Orlando when I played. That family feeling is a huge part of our culture and our program.”

The next hit came as key players left the program. Sophomore Matthew Forbes left for Ohio State, with seniors Aristotelis Thanos and David Saye departing alongside All-American Ozan Baris, MSU's most decorated tennis player. However, hope springs eternal, and it came in the form of three returners: senior Taym Alazmeh, juniors Danial Rakhmatullayev and Mitchell Sheldon.

“We're filling those shoes better than we ever could have imagined,” Flowers said. 

In collegiate tennis, there's little downtime. The summer is often a period for athletes to work on individual ATP player rankings. They take a proactive approach to their training, something Flowers attributed to the player-led culture that drove the team last season rather than a coach-mandated approach.

For Alazmeh and Rakhmatullayev, the offseason also meant returning home to their families outside the United States. Rakhmatullayev, from Kazakhstan, is a national champion in his home country, while Alazmeh spent his summer training at an academy in Frankfurt, Germany. 

“My days there look similar to my days here, just without the school part,” Alazmeh said. “I wake up early, around 7 a.m., and I practice four to five hours a day. Then I get back home, and I only really have a little time to spend with my family and walk the dog or go for a walk myself.”

This practice-intensive summer schedule also collides with the need for the players to recuperate. 

“I'm trying to save myself because I struggle with some injuries right now. I really try to heal every part of my body to be able to play tournaments, so I don't practice that much. I do maybe two hours max, and I try to give more time to my rehab. I also try to enjoy life and do some stuff outside of tennis,” Rakhmatullayev said.

Michigan State Men’s Tennis Announces Fall 2026 Schedule 📰: https://t.co/VzVSMZnXPH https://t.co/FWb2vEsCG3

— Michigan State Men’s Tennis (@MSU_MTennis) September 16, 2026

With five new players joining the roster, Alazmeh and Rakhmatullayev have moved into more prominent roles in a team that looks considerably different from the one that won the Big Ten. Both said the returning players have had to take greater ownership of the team’s culture, from setting the tone at practice to helping newcomers adjust to a new program.

Noa Tcherniack is one of those newcomers. The French sophomore transferred in from Northern Arizona after being named first-team All-Big Sky in singles, with a team-best 16-5 record in singles. He led his team to a Big Sky championship for the first time since 2021.

The older players taking control has helped Tcherniack “Adapt to a new team and environment because of how easily everyone was trying to get each other involved since the beginning of the first practice."

Flowers doesn't want to set a specific target for the Spartans just yet. With five new players and a reshaped lineup, he said the team’s potential remains undetermined. But they still hope that the next time they find themselves playing past midnight, they will have another reason to celebrate at In-N-Out.