After an unsuccessful Bedford Cup a week ago, Florida men’s tennis aced its trip up to State College, Pennsylvania, for the Holmes Cathrall Memorial Invitational Oct. 3-5. Florida sent two Gators to compete: senior Tanapatt Nirundorn and freshman Andreas Timini. Both men competed in singles and partnered up for doubles action.
The tournament was split into blue and white draws on the singles side, while the doubles draw was a single draw due to the limited number of teams participating. For singles, Florida landed in the white draw but did not have to play until Saturday. For doubles, the pair did have back-to-back games on Friday due to the bracket’s lineup.
Both men played well, but the story of the weekend was Timini, who was competing in his second tournament of the fall since arriving on campus back in the summer. The first year from Cyprus boasted a perfect 7-0 overall record.
On the singles side, Timini cruised through his first two matches, beating Navy junior Jake Young 6-2, 6-2, and Columbia freshman Aditya Govila 6-2, 6-3. Timini had to battle during his third match against host school Penn State freshman Michael Wright. After Wright had won the first set 6-1, Timini had to win the next two to stave off elimination.
Timini returned the favor in the second set with a 6-4 victory and set up a winner-take-all third frame. Back and forth the two went, trading blows like two boxers in a ring, neither one showing any signs of backing down. Ultimately, Timini was able to put Wright away 6-4, securing his third singles victory.
At the doubles courts, Timini and Nirundorn took care of business, playing in four matches and winning all of them. On Friday, the pair started their run with back-to-back wins against Cornell’s senior Petar Teodorovic and freshman Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar, 6-4, and Penn State’s Wright and freshman Eyal Shyovitz, 6-4, too.
Friday’s momentum carried into Saturday with another dominant win against Columbia sophomores Jordan Chang and Thanaphat Boosarawongse, 6-2. It was a grind-it-out kind of match on Sunday against the University of Buffalo senior Theodoris Mitsakos and junior Michael Malkin, who gave the Gators everything they could. However, Timini and Nirundorn were able to pull ahead late in the match and hold on to win 7-5.
Nirundorn's time this weekend will be remembered most on the doubles side, but he did post a 1-1 record in singles play. Nirundorn defeated Columbia sophomore Jakub Katuch in straight sets, but battled to get the win, taking the first set 6-4 and having to clinch the second set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (4).
However, Nirundorn's singles time was cut short after losing to Senthil Kumar in three sets 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Nirundorn took the first set, but was not able to put his opponent away when he had the chance and dropped the next two sets.
With another tournament in the books, Florida will set its eyes on the ITA Southeast Regional Championship, which is hosted by Florida this year. The tournament will bring in athletes from programs across Florida and Georgia to compete. The event also gives players another chance to secure automatic bids for the NCAA tournament in November. The championships will begin on Wednesday and end on Monday.
Contact Hunter DeLauder at hdelauder@alligator.org. Follow him on X @DelauderHunter.
