Florida Men’s Tennis Splits Home Matches

Following a big win against No. 19 Vanderbilt on Thursday, Florida men’s tennis fell in a 4-2 heartbreaker to No. 7 LSU on Senior Night.

The Gators celebrated seniors Lorenzo Claverie, Tanapatt Nirundorn and Pablo Perez-Ramos in the final home match of the season at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex on Saturday.

Falling 4-2 after nearly three hours of intense competition, Florida later bounced back in a quick turnaround with a 7-0 win against Presbyterian College.

Doubles
Florida fell behind early after doubles play.

Florida’s pair of Kevin Edengren and Andreas Timini opened with a 6-4 win against Enzo Kohlmann De Freitas and Olaf Pieczkowski. Court 1 followed closely behind, with LSU’s Sasa Markovic and Andrej Loncarevic taking a 6-4 win over Henry Jefferson and Nirundorn.

With the doubles point coming down to Court 2, Perez-Ramos and Adhithya Ganesan battled Matias Ponce de Leon and Erik Arutiunian. Despite a tight match, LSU (22-5, 8-4 SEC) secured the point with a 6-4 win.

Singles
The Gators continued to fight in singles but couldn’t close the gap.

Ganesan dropped his first set against Arutiunian on Court 1. Jeremy Jin and Perez-Ramos led Florida early, each taking first sets 6-2. Claverie and Edengren fell behind 3-6 in their opening sets against Loncarevic and Kohlmann, respectively. Jefferson battled Ponce de Leon to a first-set tiebreak but fell 7-6.

Arutiunian extended LSU’s lead to 2-0 with a 6-2, 6-2 win against Ganesan. With four of six courts leaning LSU’s way, the Tigers needed just two more points.

Florida responded. Perez-Ramos put the Gators on the board with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Markovic on Court 5. Jin followed on Court 3, defeating Alessio Vasquez 6-2, 6-4 to tie the match at 2-2.

Court 6 finished next, as Kohlmann defeated Edengren 6-3, 6-4 to give LSU a 3-2 lead. With matches remaining on Court 2 (Claverie vs. Loncarevic) and Court 4 (Jefferson vs. Ponce de Leon), LSU needed one more point.

Claverie ultimately fell to Loncarevic 6-3, 7-5, clinching the match for LSU and sealing the 4-2 final.

UF coach Adam Steinberg said the Gators didn’t play to their potential.

“To get a top-10 win against a very good team, we have to live our identity and we didn’t do that,” he said. “I thought we played a bit scared at times and we didn’t play true to who we are.”

Bounce back against Presbyterian College

Florida returned to the courts just two hours later against Presbyterian College (9-6) and dominated in a 7-0 sweep.

The Gators secured the doubles point early with a 6-1 win from Claverie and Jin on Court 3 and a 7-5 win from Perez-Ramos and Jefferson.

They carried that momentum into singles. After the first set, five of six courts were in the Gators’ favor, with Perez-Ramos the lone exception after dropping his opening set to Daksh Prasad on Court 3. Steinberg commented on his performance after the match.

“He’s got the biggest heart in college tennis, in my opinion,” he said. “I wanted him to take it out of his bag, put it in his chest, and play.”

Edengren struck first in singles with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Dario Navarro, pushing Florida’s lead to 2-0. Francesco Cordova followed with a 6-3, 6-1 win against Thomas Anderson to make it 3-0.

Jefferson stayed close on Court 2 against David Mamalat before closing it out 6-2, 6-3 to clinch the match.

Perez-Ramos battled back to defeat Prasad 2-6, 7-5, 1-0 (11-9). Ganesan added another point with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) win over Matija Samardzic.

Court 5 closed the match, where Timini defeated Eduardo Valentin 6-3, 3-6, 1-0 (10-6), sealing the 7-0 sweep for Florida.

Up Next

The Gators (14-11, 5-7) hit the court again Friday against the Texas Longhorns in Austin. First serve is at 7 p.m.

Category: Gator Sports, Gators Tennis, SEC, Tennis