In what can best be described as an up-and-down season so far, Florida men’s tennis showed up against Ole Miss.
The No. 26 Florida Gators (7-7, 2-2 SEC) defeated the No. 30 Ole Miss Rebels (12-3, 2-1 SEC) 5-2 Thursday evening in Oxford.
Senior Lukas Greif and freshman Jonah Braswell started the day with a 6-3 doubles win over Ole Miss freshmen Isac Stromberg and Noah Schlagenhauf.
The Rebels’ senior pair of Lukas Engelhardt and Nikola Slavic defeated Gators junior Will Grant and graduate student Axel Nefve 6-3 in the second match to even doubles play.
Florida sophomore Nate Bonetto and freshman Tanapatt Nirundorn pulled away from Ole Miss junior John Hallquist Lithen and senior Simon Junk to win the final doubles match 6-4. The win secured the doubles point for Florida and put the team up 1-0.
Singles play started off less than favorably for the Rebels. Junk was forced to retire due to injury in the second set of his match against the No. 79-ranked Braswell.
Freshman Togan Tokac extended Florida’s lead to 3-0 after he defeated Stromberg in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1.
Greif clinched Florida’s victory after his two-set win over Ole Miss freshman Gordon Whitwell, 6-1, 6-3.
Though it no longer mattered, No. 69-ranked Slavic got Ole Miss on the board with a straight-sets victory over the No. 103-ranked Nefve, 6-4, 6-3.
Engelhardt followed his doubles victory with a win of his own over freshman Gator Olek Orlikowski. The senior lost the first set 7-6 (4) but stayed strong and won the second 6-3. Engelhardt finished the match with a 10-4 win in the third set.
Grant, who is the No. 72-ranked singles player, ended the evening with a straight-sets victory over Lithen, 7-5, 7-5.
Florida will head to Vanderbilt for the second of its two-game road trip at noon Saturday.
Contact Eitan Ohana at eohana@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @eitan_ohana.
