Florida Men’s Tennis Heads Into Sunshine State Showdown Friday

The Gators men’s tennis team looks to make it back-to-back wins over ranked opponents this Friday when it travels to Tallahassee to take on the Florida State Seminoles. Florida is riding the momentum from a huge win over #4 UCLA where red-shirt freshman Oliver Landert clinched both the singles and doubles point.

Now the Gators take on the Noles, and Florida head coach Bryan Shelton says that they have to keep focused and keep playing well.

“Continue to push the guys to watch the video and go through it, to make sure that we’re making good decisions out there on the court when we play doubles,”  Shelton said.

The doubles matches are a pivotal part of getting the W against the big teams, and that is an area that Shelton has continued to work on with his team.

“I always say that positioning and shot selection are two of the most critical things when you play doubles, along with serve and return,” said Shelton.

As for the Seminoles, the old saying is that familiarity breeds contempt, and these are two teams that are very familiar with each other.

“FSU is a quality program that has a lot of talent on their roster and those guys know us extremely well and so they will have a great game plan for our guys, but we also know them extremely well too,” said Shelton.

Going on the road won’t be easy either according to the Florida head coach.

“For us, going in to play them on their home courts, I’m sure they’re gonna have a lot of people their supporting them, and they want nothing more than to beat us, and so we know we’re gonna get their best punch. And our guys just have to be ready.”

Florida vs. Florida State gets underway at 5 p.m. on Friday from the Speicher Tennis Center in Tallahassee.