With the NCAA tournament fast approaching later this week, Florida sought to send a few more of its roster to the big dance with a strong performance at this past weekend’s M15 Orlando. Junior Kevin Edengren and freshman Andreas Timini made the trip with the Gators to compete individually in the tournament.
While both men were competing in the singles bracket, they each had different starting points in the tournament. Timini had already qualified for the main draw, whereas Edengren had to play his way there through the qualifying bracket first.
Edengren got started on day one of the tournament, where he faced off with Barry University freshman Francisco Montana and defeated him in straight sets (6-1, 6-3). After the day one win, Edengren needed one more victory to advance to the main draw. Edengren took on Auburn senior William Nolan. After Edengren edged out a 6-4 first-set victory, he dominated the second set, winning 6-0 and advancing into the main draw.
Along with Edengren's big win, Timini got his tournament started that same day. Timini took on Minnesota senior Felix Corwin and battled hard in the first set, but dropped it 7-5. Needing a set win to keep the match alive, Corwin continued to put the pressure on the Cypress native. Timini dug himself an early hole in the second set and never recovered, losing 6-1 and being eliminated in the first round.
After back-to-back wins to advance into the main draw, Edengren faced LSU commit Donald Nikolas Stoot in the main draw first round. Similar to Timini, Edengren saw his time end before it even got started with a straight-sets defeat. Edengren was in good shape for most of the first set, but lost control towards the end — inevitably losing it 6-3. After falling short in the first set, Edgengren had no answers in the second, losing 6-0.
With both men failing to advance past the first round, they failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. With that in mind, Florida would only have three players representing the university at the NCAA tournament: juniors Henry Jefferson and Jeremy Jin, along with senior Tanapatt Nirundorn.
The NCAA Tournament takes place at the USTA National Campus and runs from Nov. 18-23. Jefferson and Nirundorn will compete in the doubles bracket, while Jin will be the lone Gator in the singles draw.
Contact Hunter DeLauder at hdelauder@alligator.org. Follow him on X @DelauderHunter.
