Tag: women’s tennis

Gators women’s tennis kicks off fall season in Chapel Hill

Florida women’s tennis kicks off its fall season on Friday in Chapel Hill for the Kitty Harrison Invitational.

Florida’s women’s tennis program opens up its fall schedule this weekend in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for the Kitty Harrison Invitational.

The annual tournament hosted by the North Carolina Tar Heels consists of eight schools, with the Duke Blue Devils, Virginia Cavaliers, Old Dominion Monarchs, Purdue Boilermakers, Charlotte 49ers and Penn State Nittany Lions joining UNC and UF. The event begins on Friday and extends into Sunday, with each day’s competition starting at 9:30 a.m. ET and 1:30 p.m. ET.

During both the morning and afternoon sessions, doubles will open up play followed by singles matches.

The Orange and Blue kicks off the fall season with five ranked singles players, headlined by Rachel Gailis. The junior from Delray Beach, Florida,  is ranked seventh after defeating seven nationally-ranked players last season.

Current ITA Rankings

Preseason Singles Rankings

No. 7 Rachel Gailis
No. 29 Emily De Oliveira
No. 61 Qavia Lopez
No. 103 Alicia Dudeney
No. 122 Talia Neilson-Gatenby

Preseason Doubles Rankings

No. 66 Talia Neilson-Gatenby and Qavia Lopez

Preseason Newcomer Rankings

No. 8 Talia Neilson-Gatenby

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Gators women’s tennis earns 6 individual awards, All-SEC Academic Team honors

The Florida Gators not only excel in competition but also the classroom, as the ITA’s announcement on Monday demonstrates.

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

Gators academic standouts [autotag]Alicia Dudeney[/autotag], [autotag]Bente Spee[/autotag], [autotag]Qavia Lopez[/autotag], [autotag]Sara Dahlstrom[/autotag], [autotag]Sophie Williams[/autotag] and [autotag]Malwina Rowinska[/autotag] are the six ITA Scholar-Athletes representing the Orange and Blue in the announcement.

Within the sport of tennis, student-athletes continue to exceed expectations in the classroom and on the court. In 2024, 1,573 Division I women’s student-athletes were named an ITA Scholar-Athlete and 255 women’s tennis programs were awarded the All-Academic Team distinction.

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 women’s tennis signs top British recruit Talia Neilson-Gatenby

The women’s tennis team added its third incoming freshman to its 2024 recruiting class.

The top women’s tennis recruit out of Great Britain [autotag]Talia Neilson-Gatenby[/autotag] committed to the Florida Gators on Monday, head coach Roland Thornqvist announced. She joins the Orange and Blue after previously training with LTA’s National Academy in Loughborough.

“We are thrilled to announce the signing of Talia, one of the most talented juniors I’ve seen on the international stage and a fantastic young woman to help our quest to win yet another National Championship,” Thornqvist said. “This signing class is shaping up to be one of the deepest we’ve had in years and Talia will have a chance to make a big impact right away.”

Neilson-Gatenby held a career-best No. 541 world ranking in singles and a No. 896 in doubles on the ITF circuit. She secured the 15k ITF doubles title in Monastir in May, marking her first ITF World Tour doubles title.

In 2022, Neilson-Gatenby qualified for the Wimbledon junior event after making it to the 18 & Under Junior National Title finals. She made it to the second round of the prestigious tournament before falling to Annabelle Xu, an ITA All-American and a First Team All-ACC player at Virginia.

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Florida women’s tennis adds Noémie Oliveras to 2024-25 roster

The Gators added one of the top young women in French tennis to its roster.

The Florida women’s tennis program welcomed incoming freshman Noémie Oliveras from St. Étienne, France, to the Gator Nation.

“We are very excited to welcome Noémie into our team for the fall of 2024,” Gators’ assistant coach Jeremy Bayon shared. “Noémie is a very talented player, with tremendous abilities. She has a very complete game and is ready to make an impact for the Gators in both singles and doubles play.”

The French native had a successful season this past year on the French circuit, ranked among the U18’s top-5. Throughout all stages of her tennis career thus far, Oliveras has been consistently ranked in France’s top 10 for all age divisions.

Noémie Oliveras has also claimed three regional championship titles and recorded her best win on tour over WTA ranked No. 775.

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Iga Swiatek and Naomi Osaka’s 3-hour French Open thriller left tennis fans in awe

What a mind-bogglingly good match from Iga Swiatek and Naomi Osaka.

Iga Swiatek, the world’s top-ranked tennis player, and Naomi Osaka might have played one of the most stressful second-round matches at the French Open fans have ever seen, and they loved every minute of it.

After a very tight first set that Iga won 7-6, Naomi stormed back to take the second set 6-1 and eventually went up 5-2 during the third set with a match point in sight.

That’s when Iga turned up the heat and WENT SCORCHED EARTH. She fully lived up to her “queen of clay” moniker and forced Osaka into some errors that eventually cleared a pathway for her to win the match with a 7-5 deciding set.

The match was such an amazing chess match that Naomi Osaka — who is returning from having a baby and showed impressive endurance — received a standing ovation from the crowd.

Tennis fans also loved how incredible the match was and showered both Iga and Naomi with praise. Here’s what they said:

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Florida women’s tennis concludes 2024 season ranked No. 14 by ITA

Chalk up another fine season for the Florida women’s tennis program.

The Florida women’s tennis program is ranked No. 14 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s final ranking of the 2024 season, which was released on Wednesday.

The Gators were a top-15 team for nine consecutive weeks this spring and crested at a season-high No. 8 ranking from Jan. 24 to Feb. 13.  It was a tough schedule for the Orange and Blue, but the Lady Gators persevered to still finish among the best in the nation.

The team’s season came to an end in the second round of the NCAA Tournament after falling to the No. 22 Miami Hurricanes, 4-3. The Gators dominated the Stetson Hatters in the opening round with a 4-0 victory at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.

Prior to the start of the NCAA Tournament, Florida advanced to the semifinals of the SEC Tournament and faced then-ranked No. 12 Texas A&M Aggies, falling 4-2 to the school that won the national championship on May 19.

Florida’s final conference record for the 2024 season stands at 11-2, with its only losses coming from the SEC Champions, the Georgia Bulldogs, and the national title-winning Aggies.

The year-end rankings for the singles and doubles categories will be released on May 29.

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Florida women’s tennis season ends with NCAA Tournament loss

The Lady Gators just did not have enough to stay alive in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.

The No. 15 Florida women’s tennis program saw its 2024 campaign come to a close on Sunday coming up on the short end of a second-round battle with the No. 22 Miami Hurricanes in the NCAA Tournament.

It was a narrow upset at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex in Gainesville, where the ‘Canes came back from an early deficit to earn the 4-3 event victory and move on to the next round. It all came down to a final match on court four as Alicia Dudeney was unable to fend off Audrey Boch-Collins for the final point.

Doubles pair Dudeney and Malwina Rowinska earned the opening point after going neck-to-neck the whole way through their match. Carly Briggs earned Florida’s first singles point while her teammate Qavia Lopez came up short in her match; Rachel Gailis successive singles loss evened things up at two apiece.

Sara Dahlstrom got the Gators back in the lead, 3-2, but from there Miami made their comeback. Bente Spee faltered before the aforementioned final match decided the ultimate outcome.

“Some years it’s easy to know exactly what to say, and then you have some years you really love the team and the way they worked together all year and how they invested, like this team, head coach Roland Thornqvist said after the loss.

“They came every morning, they grinded, worked and came a long way. To be honest we knew we had things that we had to get better at as the year progressed and I felt like we kept improving, but at the end it came down to a few little things and Miami was just ruthless at the end and you have to credit them in how they competed. We gave it everything we had to the very, very, very last point.”

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Florida women’s tennis dominates Stetson in tournament first round

The Gators shut out the Hatters to earn a matchup with the Hurricanes in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.

The Florida women’s tennis team earned a first-round win over the Stetson Hatters in the NCAA Tournament on Saturday in shutout fashion. The 15th-ranked Gators put up a 4-0 victory at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex to move on to the next round.

The Orange and Blue opened up with doubles wins by Rachel Gailis and Bente Spee — who earned a 6-1 win — and Carly Briggs and Qavia Lopez who squeaked by with a 6-4 triumph to give Florida its first point. Alicia Dudeney and Malwina Rowinska made it to 5-5 but the match was ultimately abandoned before a winner was decided.

Sara Dahlstrom, Gailis and Dudeney earned the final three points in singles play, which left three other matches unfinished by the time the Gators clinched the day’s event.

“The first rounds of the NCAA Tournament are always a little tricky and I thought, Stetson gave us some problems early,” head coach Roland Thornqvist noted. “Stetson served really well to start to doubles and we had to find a way to get past their serves.

“Once our nerves settled a little bit in doubles, I thought we were really good. We also had to sort of do the same thing in singles on a couple of courts,” he continued. “They were coming after us pretty good, but the spots that we seemed to struggle in a little bit in the beginning of singles we actually really settled down at the end of the first sets and were able to manage us ourselves really well.”

The Gators next face the No. 22 Miami Hurricanes in round two. The match will will begin at noon ET on Sunday and be held at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.

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Quartet of Lady Gators tennis players earn SEC post-season awards

Here are the four Florida standouts on the women’s circuit this postseason.

The Florida women’s tennis program got some good news on Wednesday when the Southeastern Conference announced the 2024 postseason awards, which included a quartet of Gators: [autotag]Rachel Gailis[/autotag], [autotag]Carly Briggs[/autotag], [autotag]Qavia Lopez[/autotag] and [autotag]Malwina Rowinska[/autotag].

Seventh-ranked sophomore Gailis was named to the First Team All-SEC Team after posting a 21-6, 9-2 SEC record while tallying seven wins over nationally ranked opponents. Briggs, who is ranked No. 57 in the country,  was selected to the All-SEC Second Team holding an 8-2 conference record, including an undefeated run at the SEC Tournament.

Lopez was selected to the All-Freshman team after an impressive first season in Gainesville, becoming the ninth in program history to be named SEC Freshman of the Week twice and the first Gator to earn the honor three times. Rowinska was also named to the All-Freshman team after an impressive campaign on the doubles side with partner Alicia Dudeney.

First-team and second-team All-SEC honorees, All-Freshman team, along with Player, Coach and Freshman of the Year were chosen by the league’s 14 coaches. Coaches cannot vote for their team or players, and ties are not broken.

First Team All-SEC:
Carolyn Ansari, Auburn
Ariana Arseneault, Auburn
Carolina Gomez Alonso, Arkansas
Rachel Gailis, Florida
Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia
Ayana Akli, South Carolina
Sarah Hamner, South Carolina
Sofia Cabezas, Tennessee
Nicole Khirin, Texas A&M
Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M
Mia Kupres, Texas A&M
Celia-Belle Mohr, Vanderbilt

Second Team All-SEC:
Anne Marie Hiser, Alabama
Petra Sedlackova, Alabama
DJ Bennett, Auburn
Angella Okutoyi, Auburn
Carly Briggs, Florida
Anastasiia Lopata, Georgia
Alexandra Vecic, Georgia
Mell Reasco, Georgia
Guillermina Grant, Georgia
Aran Teixidó Garcia, LSU
Catherine Aulia, Tennessee
Elza Tomase, Tennessee
Lucciana Perez, Texas A&M

All-Freshman Team:
Malwina Rowinska, Florida
Qavia Lopez, Florida
Aysegul Mert, Georgia
Julia Zhu, Kentucky
Kenna Erickson, LSU
Lucciana Perez, Texas A&M
Valeria Ray, Vanderbilt

Player of the Year:
Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

Freshmen of the Year:
Lucciana Perez, Texas A&M

Coach of the Year:
Drake Bernstein, Georgia

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See Cameron Brink’s epic New Balance ad with Shohei Ohtani and Coco Gauff

Shohei Ohtani. CoCo Gauff. Cameron Brink. YES.

Los Angeles Sparks rookie Cameron Brink is in a new ad for New Balance with six other sports stars, including Shohei Ohtani and Coco Gauff, and it’s fantastic.

Cameron Brink, who the Sparks drafted at No. 2 overall on Monday, is having one heck of a week. Brink, who’s had a NIL deal — now likely turned endorsement — with New Balance since 2023, is in an epic ad with several sports giants.

As part of New Balance’s “We Got Now” campaign, the company recently released another commercial with Brink in it. I have to say, the list of athletes she’s with is super impressive. This is my kind of carrying-on.