Florida's Francesco Cordova waits to strike the tennis ball during his singles match against North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex on Sunday. [Delia Rose Sauer/WRUF]

Florida Men’s Tennis Splits Home Doubleheader

Florida Gators men’s tennis split a doubleheader against the No. 15 Oklahoma Sooners and the North Carolina A&T Aggies at home Sunday. The Gators (12-10, 4-6 SEC) opened with a 4-3 loss to the Sooners (15-5, 7-4) before beating up on the Aggies (10-6) with a 4-0 win.

The match against Oklahoma ended in heartbreaking fashion for the Gators. With the score tied 3-3, Henry Jefferson forced a third set against Orel Kimhi. However, Kimchi rebounded to take the third set 6-4 to grab Oklahoma the win.

Florida’s Andreas Timini slides toward the net during his singles match against North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex on Sunday. [Delia Rose Sauer/WRUF]

“That was a very tough loss against a very good team,” Florida coach Adam Steinberg said. “We were right there though. The guys know it.”

The Gators started out the doubles competition strong. Their Court 1 duo of Henry Jefferson-Tanapatt Nirundorn took their set 6-3 to give the Gators an early advantage.

The Court 3 pairing of Kevin Edengren-Andreas Timini looked poised to close out the doubles competition after being up a break late. However, the Oklahoma duo of Johan Rodriguez-Asahi Harazaki came back to even the set and send it to a tiebreaker while the Gators’ Court 2 duo lost their set.

“We need to finish that,” Steinberg said. “We need to finish that before it gets to the tiebreaker.”

The Gators duo took an early 4-1 lead in the tiebreaker, but lost the next six points to lose the set.

The start to singles went even worse. It was a break party early for the Sooners, as they got a break in the first game on four out of six courts. Two of the first three sets to finish were ugly results for the Gators, as Edengren and Adhithya Ganesan took 6-2 beatings.

Pablo Perez Ramos grabbed a win between his teammates’ losses. After a back-and-forth set, Perez Ramos grabbed the first break of the set to claim his sixth win to close out the set.

The next two sets to finish went to the Sooners, when Jefferson and Lorenzo Claverie both took 6-4 losses.

The final first set between Florida’s Jeremy Jin and Rodriguez went to a tiebreaker. The tiebreaker maintained the back-and-forth nature of their set, as it was 7-7 through the first 14 points. Jin grabbed the next two points to come out on top.

Edengren rebounded in a big way in his second set, taking a 6-1 win against Harazaki to force a third set.

Ganesan looked poised to force a third set as well. He broke Luis Alvarez’s serve early, but wasn’t able to hold onto his lead. Alvarez broke Ganesan’s serve late to finish the match and put the first singles point on the board.

The Gators reduced the Oklahoma lead back to one shortly afterward. Perez Ramos took his second set after it was sent to a tiebreaker. Perez Ramos dominated in the tiebreaker, winning it 7-2 to get the Gators their first point of the day.

“I was being very aggressive, that’s what we’ve been practicing this week,” Perez Ramos said. “That was pretty much it, I was being aggressive and closing out points.”

Edengren followed up with another dominant set against Harazaki, winning the set 6-2 to finish his match and tie the score at 2-2.

The tie was broken by Jeremy Jin, who took his second set against Rodriguez 6-1. Jin celebrated by throwing his hat in the air before shaking his opponent’s hand.

Florida’s Francesco Cordova serves the tennis ball during his singles match against North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex on Sunday. [Delia Rose Sauer/WRUF]

The Gators only needed one more set to grab a statement win. Jefferson won his second set against Orel Kimhi to force a third set.

Shortly afterward, Claverie lost his set in a tiebreaker. The tiebreaker was close, but Claverie lost the next two points after evening it at 6-6.

Jefferson’s final set would be for all the marbles.

Kimhi broke Jefferson’s serve in the set’s first game. That would be the only break for a while until Jefferson evened the score with a break of his own. Unfortunately for Jefferson, Kimchi responded by getting another break. Jefferson couldn’t recover after that, as he took a 6-4 loss in the final set to give the Sooners another win to put on their ledgers.

“I felt like there was a lack of belief at the start of singles,” Steinberg said. “We fought like hell to get it back, but I felt we could’ve started better and I think that was the difference.”

The Gators couldn’t dwell on their loss for long, as they had the second match of their doubleheader against NC A&T in an hour and a half.

“It’s a quick turnaround,” Perez Ramos said. “You go in, you shower, you go back out and hope to play your best.”

That match was a laugher in the Gators’ favor. All six Gators singles players won their first set. Perez Ramos won his first set 6-0. Claverie, Nirundorn and Francesco Cordova all won theirs 6-1.

Perez Ramos won his second set 6-0 as well to complete a 12-0 sweep of Ben Werle. Timini also swept his second set against Mathieu Dussaubaut.

Nirundorn and Cordova won their second sets to close out a 4-0 beatdown of the Aggies.

The Gators take the court next on Thursday at home against No. 17 Vanderbilt.

Category: Gator Sports, Gators Tennis