The Florida men’s tennis team came back from a 2-1 deficit to upset the higher ranked Florida State Seminoles Thursday.
The No. 15 Florida Gators (4-1) beat No. 12 Florida State (5-2) 4-2 at the United States Tennis Association National Campus. The victory extended their winning streak to four matches in a row.
The Gators started the match strong in doubles play.
Graduate student Axel Nefve and junior Will Grant beat the Seminoles’ duo of junior Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc and senior Barnaby Smith 6-3 for Florida’s first doubles win.
The Gators’ freshman team of Tanapatt Nirundorn and Togan Tokac then took the next match against FSU sophomore Joshua Dous-Karpenschif and redshirt sophomore Maks Silagy 6-3.
Gators freshman Jonah Braswell and senior Lukas Greif took on Seminoles sophomore Alex Bulte and junior Loris Pourroy. However, the match was called short since Florida already clinched the doubles point.
Florida State started off the singles round strong, winning its first two matches.
Cornut-Chauvinc beat Nefve in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4, for the Seminoles’ first point. Dous-Karpenschif then defeated Greif in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2, to give FSU a 2-1 lead.
The Gators responded with three straight singles matches to take the win.
Tokac took care of business against Smith; he won in two sets, 6-3, 7-6 (2). Sophomore Nate Bonetto gave Florida its third point with a straight-sets victory against FSU sophomore Youcef Rihane, 6-4, 7-6 (6).
Braswell sealed the Gators’ win against Florida State sophomore Jamie Connel. He won a tough first set 7-6 (8) and earned an easier 6-3 win in the second set.
The final singles match between Grant and Pourroy was retired because Florida had already secured the victory.
Florida still has two games remaining at the USTA National Campus. The first match comes at 2 p.m. Feb. 4 against the No. 7 Southern California Trojans.
Contact Eitan Ohana at eohana@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @eitan_ohana.
