The Gators women’s tennis team will have an opportunity to bounce back this weekend, after a subpar performance at the USTA Fall Ranked Spotlight this past weekend.
Two of UF’s players, Sydney Berlin and Tsveta Dimitrova, will begin play Friday at the Bedford Cup. The three-day event will be hosted at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Florida. The statewide event will feature USF, UCF, FGCU, North Florida, Stetson, FAU and FIU.
Berlin and Dimitrova will compete in the 48-player singles field, which will be divided into three 16-player brackets. They will also compete in the 32-player doubles draw.
Berlin, a sophomore, has won four of her last five matches and has an 8-6 career record. Dimitrova, the senior transfer from Houston, enters the season with more wins than any other Gator (60).
The duo will play at 8 a.m. in doubles against Sandra Bozinovic and Maria Turrillo of FIU on Friday. Following the doubles match, Dimitrova will take the court for singles play at 9 a.m. and Berlin will take the court at 11 a.m. Dimitrova will play her second singles match at 12:30 p.m. and Berlin will play again at 2:30 p.m.
The men’s squad will begin play on Saturday at the USTA Men’s All-American Championships at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The nine-day tournament will end on Oct. 13. Pre-qualifying and qualifying will go through Tuesday, with the main draw set to begin on Wednesday. No. 3 junior Oliver Crawford and No. 10 sophomore Sam Riffice will anchor Florida’s play.
Follow Noah Ram on Twitter @noah_ram1. Contact him at nram@alligator.org.
Noah is a third year journalism-sports and media student from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He has been with The Alligator since Spring 2019 and has covered men’s and women’s tennis, gymnastics and volleyball. When he isn’t on his beat, Noah is usually sadden over his beloved South Florida sports teams, such as the Heat and Dolphins.
