The Gators men’s tennis managed 20 wins across 27 matches in Columbia, South Carolina, despite a rain delay that ultimately cut their competition short. The Gamecock Fall SEC Shootout was the team’s second event of the season.
Florida went 15-4 across completed singles matches, continuing its dominance in singles, and had a 5-3 record across its doubles matches.
UF started the invite Friday with four doubles matches against the host Gamecocks. The Gators split these, with Blaise Bicknell and Andy Andrade teaming up to claim a match and tandem Lukas Greif and Will Grant taking another. Sam Riffice, coming off of a 6-0 performance at Auburn earlier this month, dropped his first match of the year in another match with freshman Ben Shelton.
The first day of competition continued with eight singles matches against South Carolina and one against Texas A&M. The Gators won all but two of those matches for nine total wins on the opening slate.
Florida continued its strong play Saturday against Georgia, winning six of eight singles matches and three of four doubles matches against the rival Bulldogs as well as another singles match against A&M to improve to 19-7 across all matches for the week.
The team was scheduled to face Texas A&M for the final day of competition, but most of Sunday’s events were rained out after only one match was completed. Blaise Bicknell won that singles match 6-1, 6-3 to give the Gators their 20th win of the week before the rest of play was suspended.
“We got exactly what we hoped for and got better throughout this weekend,” head coach Ben Shelton said in a release.
The Gators are scheduled to compete next in Athens, Georgia, on Nov. 6-8 for their third and final SEC invite of the fall season.
Contact Ryan Haley at rhaley@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @ryan_dhaley.
Lukas Greif swings at a tennis ball on the fourth day of the ITA Tournament in Gainesville last season. He and Will Grant teamed up for a doubles win in South Carolina Friday.
Ryan Haley, a UF journalism senior with a sports & media specialization from Jacksonville, Florida, is Summer 2022's Engagement Managing Editor. He grew up playing a bunch of different sports before settling on golf, following Rory McIlroy and all Philadelphia sports teams. He also loves all things fiction, reading, watching shows and movies and talking about whatever current story or character is in his head.
