diff --git a/tez-api/src/main/java/org/apache/tez/client/TezClientUtils.java b/tez-api/src/main/java/org/apache/tez/client/TezClientUtils.java
index d0fc374a81..d78ccf3e89 100644
--- a/tez-api/src/main/java/org/apache/tez/client/TezClientUtils.java
+++ b/tez-api/src/main/java/org/apache/tez/client/TezClientUtils.java
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Collection;
+import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.HashSet;
 import java.util.Iterator;
@@ -767,7 +768,7 @@ static void maybeAddDefaultLoggingJavaOpts(String logLevel, List<String> vargs)
   public static String maybeAddDefaultLoggingJavaOpts(String logLevel, String javaOpts) {
     List<String> vargs = new ArrayList<String>(5);
     if (javaOpts != null) {
-      vargs.add(javaOpts);
+      Collections.addAll(vargs, javaOpts.split(" "));
     } else {
       vargs.add("");
     }
diff --git a/tez-api/src/test/java/org/apache/tez/client/TestTezClientUtils.java b/tez-api/src/test/java/org/apache/tez/client/TestTezClientUtils.java
index 29a6769716..0341f27f66 100644
--- a/tez-api/src/test/java/org/apache/tez/client/TestTezClientUtils.java
+++ b/tez-api/src/test/java/org/apache/tez/client/TestTezClientUtils.java
@@ -684,12 +684,13 @@ public void testDefaultLoggingJavaOpts() {
 
   @Test
   public void testDefaultLoggingJavaOptsWithRootLogger() {
-    String origJavaOpts = "-D" + TezConstants.TEZ_ROOT_LOGGER_NAME + "=INFO";
+    String origJavaOpts = "-D" + TezConstants.TEZ_ROOT_LOGGER_NAME + "=INFO -DtestProperty=value";
     String javaOpts = TezClientUtils.maybeAddDefaultLoggingJavaOpts("FOOBAR", origJavaOpts);
     Assert.assertNotNull(javaOpts);
     Assert.assertTrue(javaOpts.contains("-D" + TezConstants.TEZ_ROOT_LOGGER_NAME + "=FOOBAR"));
     Assert.assertTrue(javaOpts.contains(TezConstants.TEZ_CONTAINER_LOG4J_PROPERTIES_FILE)
         && javaOpts.contains("-Dlog4j.configuratorClass=org.apache.tez.common.TezLog4jConfigurator"));
+    Assert.assertTrue(javaOpts.contains("-DtestProperty=value"));
   }
 
   @Test (timeout = 5000)