Tag: mens tennis

Florida tennis results from 2024 Bedford Cup

After sweeping the Bedford Cup a year ago, Florida came into the 2024 tournament with high hopes. However, no Gator made it past the quarterfinals.

Nine in-state programs competed for the 2024 Bedford Cup this weekend at the University of Florida, including FAU, FGCU, FSU, Miami, Stetson, UCF, UNF and USF.

Mattia Akcan, Francesco Cordova, Kevin Edengren and Tanapatt Nirundorn played in singles and doubles action for the Gators. Nirundorn is the only Gator with experience at the event having played in it last year. The Gators swept the 2023 edition of the tournament, including Nirundorn’s doubles championship.

Singles play was split into two brackets — Orange and Blue —  while the doubles format had just one draw.

Singles Results

Nirundorn, the second seed in the Orange bracket, had a bye in the Round of 32 and defeated USF’s Thomas Pavlekovich-Smith, 6-2, 6-4, in the second round on Friday. Unfortunately, he fell in straight sets to UNF’s Andreas Scott in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

Edengren lost his opening-round matchup against Stetson’s Eder Blanco Fernandez, 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-3, in the Orange bracket. He defaulted in the consolation bracket.

In the opening round of the Blue singles draw, Cordova advanced in straight sets, 7-6, 5-3, over Florida Gulf Coast’s Stavros Hadjivarna, and Akcan fell in the opening round in three sets to Florida State’s Elias Sumann.

Cordova retired before the end of the second set in the Round of 16 due to injury. He was losing, 6-3, 5-3, before retirement.

Akcan won his first consolation match in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4, against UNF’s Benjamin Scott and advanced through the quarterfinals, defeating Miami’s Maximo Oberto, 6-2, 6-3. His run came to an end in the semifinals, losing 6-0, 7-5 against UNF’s Jean Deloziere.

Doubles Results

Nirundorn and Edengren teamed up for the event but didn’t end up playing a match. As the No. 3 seed, they earned a bye in the opening round and withdrew from the Round of 16.

Akcan and Cordova lost in the opening round, 6-2, to Florida State’s Jan Sebesta and Elias Sumann. The duo found some success in the consolation bracket’s quarterfinals, though, defeating Kartik Mandla and Lucas Olivier from Stetson, 6-4. They fell in the semifinals, 7-5, against Florida State’s Justin Lyons and Azariah Rusher.

What’s next?

Florida gets a week off from competition but returns to action Nov. 7-10 for ITA Sectionals. The Gators also have the Bonita Bay Classic at Florida Gulf Coast University on the schedule from Nov. 8-10, so expect the majority of Florida’s 10-man roster to be in action.

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Florida men’s tennis opens 2024 fall season this weekend

The Gators men’s tennis team kicks off its fall action this weekend at the SEC Challenge in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The Florida men’s tennis program opens its 2024 fall schedule this weekend at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa for this year’s SEC Challenge.

Six Gators will compete against opponents from seven other Southeastern Conference schools: the Alabama Crimson Tide, Auburn Tigers, Kentucky Wildcats, Mississippi State Bulldogs, Ole Miss Rebels, Oklahoma Sooners and Vanderbilt Commodores.

Rookies Mattia Akcan and Francesco Cordova will appear in their first-ever collegiate matches while newcomer Bradley Paliska — a transfer from the Cornell Big Red who went 14-11 last season — will make his first appearance with the Orange and Blue.

Veterans Kevin Edengren and Henry Jefferson will be making their collegiate fall season debuts this weekend while graduate student JanMagnus Johnson will make a much-anticipated appearance with Florida after an injury ended his spring 2024 campaign prematurely.

“Excited to get started and begin the mission that we are on. Guys have been working hard and can’t wait to compete together at the Bama Invite,” head coach Adam Steinberg offered. “I expect them to prepare the right way and play with great energy, focus, and intensity all weekend long.”

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Florida men’s tennis hauls in 5 individual, All-SEC Academic Team honors

The men’s tennis team has been tenacious on the hardcourt but also in the classroom this year.

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced the 2024 Division I Men’s ITA Scholar-Athletes and All-Academic Teams on Monday. The Florida men’s tennis program was awarded an All-Academic Team recognition while five individuals were honored as 2024 ITA Scholar-Athletes.

Gators academic standouts [autotag]Henry Jefferson[/autotag], [autotag]JanMagnus Johnson[/autotag], [autotag]Kevin Edengren[/autotag], [autotag]Mattia Akcan[/autotag] and [autotag]Nate Bonetto[/autotag] are the five ITA Scholar-Athletes representing the Orange and Blue in the announcement.

The women’s team had six individuals honored as 2024 ITA Scholar-Athletes while the program also earned All-Academic Team recognition. Those results were also announced on Monday.

Requirements for awards qualification

For individuals:

  • Have a student grade point average of at least 3.5 (on a 4.00 scale) for the current academic year;
  • Be listed on the institutional eligibility form

ITA All-Academic Team:

  • Have a team grade point average of 3.2 or above (on a 4.00 scale);
  • All student-athletes included should be listed on the institutional eligibility form;
  • All varsity letter winners should be factored into the cumulative team GPA for the current academic year

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Florida’s freshman tennis standout earns NCAA Tournament bid

Jeremy Jin will be representing the Orange and Blue at the men’s tennis NCAA Tournament.

The Florida Gators will be represented by one of its players at the 2024 NCAA Men’s Tennis Singles Tournament in Stillwater, Oklahoma, from May 20-25. Freshman [autotag]Jeremy Jin[/autotag], currently ITA’s No. 52-ranked singles player, was selected by the NCAA committee with an at-large bid.

Jin owned the Gators’ court one singles position for all 14 Southeastern Conference matches this season while collecting five ranked wins in his debut dual season with the Orange and Blue. His defeat of then-No. 46 Filip Planinsek of the Alabama Crimson Tide marked the high water point of the campaign for the young standout.

Florida’s top doubles tandem this dual season, Aidan Kim and Nate Bonetto, was selected as an alternate for the 2024 NCAA Men’s Tennis Doubles Tournament after earning four ranked winning sets and a No. 26 ranking among doubles tandem in the nation.

Florida has five individual national titles in program history, including one doubles title and four singles champions.

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Florida men’s tennis earns win over Georgia Bulldogs on Sunday

The Gators needed four-straight singles wins to dig themselves out of an early 0-2 deficit to earn the win over the No. 34-ranked program.

The Florida men’s tennis team earned its first win away from the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex this season with a 4-2 win over the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens on Sunday. The No. 32 Gators needed four-straight singles wins to dig themselves out of an early 0-2 deficit to earn the win over the No. 34-ranked program.

The doubles team got off to an uncharacteristically slow start, dropping sets two and three to earn the loss. Aidan Kim and Nate Bonetto put up a dominant 6-3 set on court one, but Georgia’s Mahjoob-Perez Peña tandem set the tone for the rest of the doubles match by storming back from 4-2 to take court three 6-4, thus earning a 1-0 lead heading into singles.

Kevin Edengren collected his second crucial court-six win for Florida in as many matches while Adhithya Ganesan returned to the Gators’ singles lineup for the first time since March 8 to knot the teams up at 2-2. Aidan Kim posted the most impressive comeback of the day on court two, dropping his first set, 6-1, but turned things around with a five-game winning run to claim set two, 6-1, before holding serve to win set three, 7-5.

Sophomore Tanapatt Nirundorn secured the fourth point for Florida with a win in his own three-set battle on court five, taking his match 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, to secure the victory for the Orange and Blue.

The Gators return to Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex on Friday, April 5, against the Vanderbilt Commodores at 5 p.m. ET.

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PHOTOS: Highlights from Ben Shelton’s first ATP Tour win in Japan

It’s always great to be a Florida Gator, even in the land of the rising sun.

Former Florida Gators tennis standout [autotag]Ben Shelton[/autotag] earned the first ATP Tour title of his nascent professional career on Sunday morning Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships, where he defeated Aslan Karatsev 7-5, 6-1.

The former Gator used an enormous comeback in his semi-final match against Marcos Giron to reach the finals, which also helped propel him to the trophy stand in Tokyo. The momentum from the semis must have carried over, as Shelton dispatched Karatsev in just 84 minutes.

“That meant a lot to me and my team,” Shelton said. “We have been working really hard since the beginning to build my game and win titles on the ATP Tour. I made some deep runs lately. You see the great champions, they finish weeks off. They win titles, they don’t just get to finals. They are able to maintain their level throughout the week. I am not saying I am anywhere there yet, but to be able to do it for one week, put together five matches in a row in Tokyo is really special.”

Shelton is the sixth first-time tour-level winner of the season and the first player since Lorenzo Musetti in Hamburg in 2022 to win his debut ATP Tour title at a 500 event. Additionally, the young American is the youngest Tokyo champion since Lleyton Hewitt in 2001, who was 20 years old when he won his first title.

He joins father Bryan Shelton as an ATP Tour titlist, becoming the fourth father-son duo to win tour-level singles titles in the Open Era (since 1968).

Roundtable: The best Florida Gators sports moments from 2021

Take a look at what the Gators Wire staff thinks looking back on 2021.

We have officially crossed over into the new year, leaving behind a tumultuous 2021 while heading into a hopefully more optimistic 2022. While the sports world bounced back from the effects of COVID the year prior, the pandemic still continued to plague many aspects of life, hardly giving any sense of a return to normalcy.

It was a pretty tough year for the University of Florida as well, as I laid out in an opinion column back in early November. Aside from all of the political issues the institution dealt with, the athletic program saw the loss of the legendary soccer coach Becky Burleigh to the pros, the dismissal of its women’s basketball head coach Cam Newbauer amidst accusations of abuse from his players, and of course, the grand finale of head football coach Dan Mullen getting sacked.

But it was not all bad.

Florida still remains the preeminent school for collegiate athletics and had plenty of memories to celebrate as well. Here is a look at the Gators Wire staff’s favorite moments from 2021.

Gators News: Five programs score on signing day bonanza

A quick look at all of the signing day action yesterday.

It is that time of year again when the sports programs get an early start on signing their top recruits ahead of next season. For Florida, five programs were active on Wednesday, with the lacrosse team adding a whopping eight signatures, while the men’s and women’s basketball teams signed three and two, respectively, and men’s tennis and gymnastics both bringing in a top recruit. No sports were in action yesterday nor will any be today, so let us take a look at the newest members of the Gator Nation.

Gators News: Football falls, remaining sports lift Florida up

The football team may have flailed, but some other sports picked up the slack this weekend.

Well Gator fans, this past weekend was a bit of a rough one as the football team traveled to South Carolina only to lay an egg against the Gamecocks, sending its season into a downward spiral that has already seen two coaches dismissed from the program. The good news — besides the fact that the much-maligned defensive coordinator Todd Grantham is finally gone — is that the women’s and men’s tennis teams, as well as the women’s basketball team, gave the Gator Nation a reason to continue being proud. Here is the wrap-up from this past weekend.

Gators News: A few Florida sports on tap for the upcoming weekend

Take a look at all of the action around the Gator Nation this weekend.

The weekend is nearly here and with it comes a slate of sports to keep Gator Nation satiated for the next few days. On tap, we have volleyball’s big win last night, plus both the men’s and women’s tennis teams are in action while the women’s basketball team warms up for the season with an exhibition game. Unfortunately, the swimming and diving team had its dual meet canceled, but there is still the football game scheduled for Saturday night. It should be a fun weekend for Florida fans, so let us dive right into things.