Following a regular season of highs and lows, the Florida men’s tennis team tested its luck in the opening round of the NCAA tournament in Orlando. A determined No. 29 Florida team faced No. 27 South Florida in an attempt to knock off a powerful Bulls team that notched twenty wins this season.
Despite its struggles away from its home courts in Gainesville this season, the Gators jumped ahead early and clinched a hard-fought win over South Florida in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
USF entered the NCAA tournament particularly hot, winning 11 of its last 12 matches heading into Saturday's bout. However, Florida refused to lose its first ever match to USF, extending its all-time record against the Bulls to 14-0 with a 4-1 win and punching a ticket to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Florida’s top-ranked pair, No. 15 junior Tanapatt Nirundorn and sophomore Henry Jefferson, continued to impress in doubles, defeating South Florida’s freshman Stepan Mruzek and senior Hugo Car on court one. The Bulls initially kept pace with the Gators top pair, trailing only 3-2 after five games, but Florida ultimately broke through, winning three straight games en route to a 6-2 victory on court one.
Meanwhile, UF sophomores Adhithya Ganesan and Jeremy Jin took an early lead over USF sophomore Ben Hudson and junior Toto Llanes on court two, winning the first two games that the Bulls served. With an early 4-1 lead, the pair of Florida sophomores won two of the next three matches to clinch the doubles point with a speedy 6-2 victory of their own.
Sophomore Kevin Edengren and freshman Ben Weintraub faced USF junior Elijah Cham and freshman Gughi Verdese on court three but went unfinished trailing 5-3 as Florida clinched the doubles point.
After a strong start, Florida carried its momentum into singles play, with four of the six Gators winning their first sets. Jefferson tallied the first singles point for Florida and gave the Gators a commanding 2-0 lead by dominating Verdese in singles, 6-4, 6-3, on court four.
Florida freshman Niels Villard earned his way into Saturday’s lineup after producing impressive wins in six of his last eight singles matches. However, USF’s Llanes jumped ahead early and didn’t have trouble defeating the Gator in straight sets on court six. Llanes’ much-needed 6-3, 6-4 victory pulled the Bulls back within one point.
Additionally, Edengren produced a valiant effort against Mruzek on court five to pull Florida one point from victory. The sophomore trailed 5-4 in set one but came surging back to force a tiebreaker and win 7-6 (4). Edengren narrowly bested Mruzek 7-5 in set two to win in straight sets and push Florida ahead by two.
No. 41 Ganesan won set one 6-4 against No. 66 Car on court one but lost the second set to the senior 6-4. Ganesan dug deep to defeat Car 6-3 in the final set and send the Gators to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Two matches went unfinished in their respective second sets as Florida clinched a 4-1 victory. No. 82 Jin bested USF junior Agustin Cuellar 6-4 in set one but went unfinished tied 5-5 in the second set. Johnson lost a highly-contested first set to Cham, 7-6(6), and trailed 5-4 in set two when play stopped.
Florida will advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament on Sunday at 12 p.m. where it will face No. 15 Central Florida, who bested Miami 4-1 in Saturday’s first round. Last season, Florida was eliminated by UCF in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and will look for revenge in a Sunday matchup in Orlando.
Contact Curan Ahern at cahern@alligator.com and follow him on X at @CuranAhern.
Curan is the men's tennis beat reporter and a second-year journalism sports & media major. He enjoys spending his free time with pets, at the beach and fishing.
