The men's tennis team opens against a good Texas team, that is preseason ranked 8th in the country on Sunday at home. There will be alot of new looks on this years edition of gator men's tennis. The squad numbers have swollen to nine since the fall with the addition of two junior Polish players. The top six is hard to predict, since the second semester began late on January 9th which meant not many team practices will have occurred before the Texas opener. I think it is safe to say that you will see Axel Nefve, Nate Bonetto, Jonah Braswell, and Will Grant towards the top of the lineup. Senior Lukas Greif looks like he will fill one of the remaining singles spots and the other is up in the air at this point between newcomers Tanapatt Nirundorn, Olex Orlikowski, Togan Tokac and Borys Zgola.
Excited to see the new look team. Likely to be a pretty bumpy start compared to the level we have become accustomed to....hope the young gys can develop quickly Saw we were picked 5th in the SEC
Lost 5-2, but UT is a pretty veteran team. Not very competitive in doubles which was most disappointing aspect to me Nefve lost a tough 3 setter Grant won a tough match at 2 which was a very pleasant surprise Braswell won at 3, we are gonna like this freshman Grief destroyed at 4, tough opponent but disappointing for a veteran we badly need to contribute Tokac beaten badly at 5, another freshman Nirundorn lost a very tight 3 setter at 6, also a freshman and facing a Sr Little surprised Bonetto got no action, nothing from the 2 new additions that joined the team mid term either
Injuries are currently sidelining Nate Bonetto, Borys Zgola and Olek Orlikowski. These players will return to the lineup soon.
Nate Bonetto is one of the leaders on this team, and you will see plenty of him when he is ready to go. The two Polish kids got an eye full of collegiate tennis Sunday. The fan support was outstanding and the place was rocking! Borys and Olek compared it to a Davis Cup atmosphere, and both can not wait to get a chance to play in front of our Gator tennis crowd. This team is going to get better and better as the year unfolds. No, this squad does not have the fire power of last years squad but how could it?
I was so surprised at no Nate....hope the injury doesn't linger What are the early returns on Borys and Olek? Are they a year away or expected to contribute? Very limited data , but doubles was concerning
Hard to say at this point with both Polish players being limited but Olek has quite a junior tennis resume. Borys is solid as well. Hopefully at least one of them will be ready to go very soon.
Love to hear about the good crowd support! I will be keeping up with them as the season goes along and hope to make it to Hogtown for a match.
6-1 win vs UCF, but was MUCH closer than the score indicates. Grant lost a 3 setter at 2, UF won 3 setters at 1, 3 and 4. Better doubles on courts 2 and 3, were down on 1 when the point clinched Didn't realize UCF had lost two of their stalwarts to TAMU....Roddick and Hildebrand transferred there. Little odd since Roddick coach at UCF was family Hard to gauge UCF, very Euro roster and this is their first match.
Opening weekend of the ITA in Gville this afternoon....UF vs USF Little spotty in doubles but UF wins on 1, loses on 2, wins on 3 to claim the doubles point Singles Nefve wins first set 6-0, down 0-4 in 2nd Grant getting boatraced 3-6 0-3 Bonnetto back but down 2-6 1-2 Braswell solid as a frosh 6-2 Grief started slow but back to 5-4 Tokac stepping up 6-3 6-0 Worried about Grant in the 2 slot, but not sure anyone esle can hang there either USF is 3-3 on the season, decent but shouldn't be this tough. FAU swept them. Roster is ok at the top half, transfers mostly....bottom half looks raw and they only have 7 players
Strong stretch for the good guys Nefve wins 5 straight to go up 5-4 in 2nd, nice rebound Grant wakes up and also wins 5 straight to lead 5-3 but still down a set Bonneto down 3-5 and down a set Braswell up a set and 2-1 in 2nd Greif claws out the first 6-4 but down 0-2 in second Tokac with a really nice outing 6-3 6-0 to put UF up 2-0
Nate loses second set 3-6,,,,USF on the board. Hoping it's just some rust Nefve in a tiebreak Grant wins his 2nd set, 1-1 in 3rd Braswell rock solid 6-2 6-1 for UF's 3rd point Greif gets going again, 4 straight to lead 4-2 in his second Race to see who closes it out now
Greif rips off 6 in a row to win his match....great to see from him, strong showing from the bottom half Grant up 3-1 in his 3rd Nefve had 4 match points in his tiebreak to end the match, unable to convert. It was 8-8 when Lucas finished
And were was our ATP blooming star Ben Shelton on the afternoon of our first Kick Off Classic win? He just returned from Australia the previous night and was right there in the stands screaming his head off cheering for our guys on court. Tanned and smiling I asked Ben if he was awake and his reply was "just barely. This is the level of togetherness Coach Bryan Shelton has molded within his men's tennis program. Ben would not have missed this match for anything and he will return on Saturday to support our team when it takes on Mississippi State for a potential birth in the National Indoor Team championship in Chicago later in February.
Thats awesome....figured Ben would be soaking up some of Australia. Miss St match will be a nice early gauge for this team. They certainly should improve with experience, but if they can get a W vs Miss St that's a great sigh they are a little ahead of the curve I expected.
It was literally a war out there today at the Ring Tennis Center in Gainesville. MSU came to play and the level of tennis on court was extremely high. After winning so often this win by this year's squad was very special. Once again Ben Shelton was in the first row and one of the loudest voices from the stands. Our kids were supremely challenged and fought their butts off to pull out a win and qualify for the national indoor team championship in February. Very proud of these guys. Wish one of our other current teams competing presently on the men's side of the ledger had half the resolve our guys on court showed today. I had to get that off my chest!
Very nice outing, great sign for the future. Do you think Nate's struggles this weekend were primarily due to rust? Think he was the only guy going 0-2 this weekend, although he also had some tough matchups it seems. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the strides Grant has made. I'm stubbornly still not sure he is a legit 2 hole guy, but have to respect the improvement in his game and the toughness in his battling back in matches so far.
Nate will be fine once he gets a few more competitive matches under his belt. The two Polish players are getting closer to being healthy. Next three matches will be very tough. All three opponents are top ten teams this year.
