In any sport, the weeks leading up to a season opener are where you really define not only yourself, but the kind of team you are going to be. That same rule applies to the Florida Gators men’s tennis team, which is entering this season as hungry and motivated as ever to take that next step.
While the tennis regular season does not begin until January, there is still plenty of work to be done this preseason. One of the biggest challenges, Florida head coach Adam Steinberg says, is building that team chemistry that every successful team needs.
“Everything we do in our program here is to try and take this individual sport like tennis and really make it a team sport, which is a little bit unusual in some respects,” Steinberg said. “Everything is about each other, about the University of Florida…That’s the philosophy of our program; that we are gonna play together better than anyone in the country, and we’re gonna have better energy than anyone in the country.”
Steinberg took over in 2023, leaving behind the head coaching job at Michigan, where he had coached for nine seasons and compiled a 172-64 record during that span. In his last season at Michigan, he led the Wolverines to a 27-5 overall record and an NCAA quarterfinal appearance for the second year in a row.
At the time, it may have been a surprising move to some, leaving a prestigious program like Michigan, for a Florida job where the Gators had finished the 2022-23 season 14-14 and were eliminated in the first round in the NCAA tournament.
For Steinberg, coaching at Florida had always been a dream job of his, so when the opportunity came knocking, he did not hesitate.
“It’s always been a dream job of mine, the University of Florida, I think, for any sport, but particularly tennis,” Steinberg said. “I’ve always felt it’s the best program in the country. Tennis, on the junior level, in the state of Florida, has always been the best.”
During his two seasons, Florida is 28-24 with back-to-back postseason appearances. Now, in year three, although the Gators lost some players, they return to the core. It is a veteran-led group, with six of the eight players on this year’s roster being upperclassmen.
Of the returners, Steinberg emphasized four players he wants to see become leaders on and off the court: senior Tanapatt Nirundorn and juniors Jeremy Jin, Henry Jefferson and Kevin Edengren.
“I met with them the other day, I’m like, ‘You’re not babies anymore, you're veterans now,’” Steinberg said. “They understand exactly what’s expected here at Florida. They understand what our program is about. I love those guys, they love Florida, every one of them, and they’re great examples to our new players.”
Nirundorn finished his junior season with a 9-14 overall singles record and 17-14 in doubles action. Over the summer, Nirundorn went 24-8 in singles play, including a first-place finish at Universal Tennis Rating Pro Tennis Tour in Denver, Colorado.
His doubles partner, Jefferson, took a huge second-year jump a season ago in both singles and doubles play. Jefferson went from 4-4 in singles and 8-6 overall in doubles as a freshman to 22-12 in singles and 17-16 in doubles last year.
After finishing 6-3 overall and winning the doubles title at the ITA Southeast Regional Championship in 2024. The duo entered this preseason ranked No. 33 for their doubles play in the ITA rankings, which Jefferson seemed to be unhappy with, to say the least.
“I think the preseason ranking is a little bit of a joke, to be honest, how they put us at 33 when we finished at 16,” Jefferson said. “Yeah, it's whatever, preseason ranking doesn't mean anything. I think we're definitely one of the best players in college, and we're going to show that this year.”
Jin, a Sydney, Australia, native, comes into his third year in Gainesville, where he looks to build off his 8-4 singles tournament record, 13-15 overall, and finished No. 41 in the ITA 2024 rankings. This fall, ITA ranked Jin as the 45th best player. Over the summer, Jin competed for Australia in the World University Games that took place in China.
Among all four leaders Steinberg highlighted, the player he wants to see take the biggest jump is Edengren.
“Kevin [Edengren] for sure has another gear, another level if I had to pick one person,” Steinberg said. “I think he could really step up and start playing higher in the lineup and really make an impact there. I know he has it in him, and you know it would make me so proud to see that. But he knows he has to earn that, nothing’s given to him, and he gets that.”
The third-year player from Stockholm, Sweden, had a solid sophomore season despite being toward the bottom of the lineup. Spending more time in the singles division, Edengren posted a 17-7 overall record, including a 7-2 SEC record. This summer, Edengren recorded a 23-10 singles record, playing in four tournaments across six European countries.
The excitement levels around this team are the highest they have ever been in the Steinberg era among those in the program. Steinberg believes that if this team comes together as a unit this fall, it will carry over into a special season come January.
“I think they’re really hungry, not only to improve on the tennis court, but to improve as a team,” Steinberg said. “Come January, if we can really become a machine, so to speak, in that way, you know we’re gonna have a great season, we know that.”
Florida is scheduled in four tournaments this fall, starting on Sept. 20 at the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Gators also face Florida State in the Bedford Cup Sept. 26-28 in Tallahassee and travel north to State College, Pennsylvania, for a tournament at Penn State Oct. 3-5. Florida will host the ITA Regional Championships as its only home event on its schedule, taking place from Oct. 8-13.
Contact Hunter DeLauder at hdelauder@alligator.org. Follow him on X @DelauderHunter
