Hate to say must win in the second conference match, but they have to right the ship fast. Doubles about as tight as it gets, 7-6 7-5 6-6....but 1-0 UF Braswell is back, they said leg injury so that could be anything from cramps to an ankle. Same lineup, Tokac has disappeared from singles and doubles. Not sure what that means Nefve down 0-3 Grant down 1-2 Nate down 1-2 Braswell up 3-1 Greif up 3-0 Orli up 4-0 It would appear LSU strength isn't bottom of the lineup
First sets wrapping Nefve loses 1-6.....weird because this guy isn't special. Just lost to TAMU in straight sets playing #2 Grant playing better 5-3 Nate down 3-4 but seems to be competing Braswell 6-1 Greif 6-1 Orli 6-1 Nice play from the bottom half
Nefve figures it out and blitzes the back end of the second set 6-3 Grant also settled in 6-4 4-1 and should wrap soon Nate scratched out his first 7-5 Braswell down 3-4 in 2nd Greif down 3-4 in his second Orli was up up 4-0 but had to hang on 6-4 for UF's second point
Nefve wins his third Nate goes 7-5 7-6 Greif loses his second set and a 10 point TB.....just don't know how much longer they can stick with him. I hate it, always been one of my faves but this year has been a struggle
Yes it was one of those "have to win" matches last Saturday. Still lots going on in the program as the staff tried to figure out who to play where in the lineup moving forward.
Any chance we get to see Zgola soon? Curious, he seemed to have come in with a little higher expectations than Orlikowski Tokac has been wildly inconsistent, but his upside sure seems like it's worth running him out there I would keep Braswell at 4, 3 seemed to eat him up for now and Nate seemed to perform about the same regardless of 3 or 4. SEC schedule extremely back loaded, 4 toughest matches look to be the last 4 of the season. Need to get win next few matches and figure some things out, hopefully steal one or two late and get a top 16 slot
Zgola will probably redshirt. Incidentally Zgola was not the higher ranked junior, Orlikowski was. Tokac will have to earn his way back into the lineup.
In my newsletter to Gator men's tennis fans I stated that this years men's tennis schedule was back loaded. The newsletter also publishes the previous weeks SEC scores and standings. In the first week of play Auburn beat Tennessee, and South Carolina beat Kentucky. Finally after beating Florida at home on Friday, MSU lost to bitter rival Ole Miss in Oxford. The SEC kick off weekend showed how convoluted the SEC may be this season. The only constant was Georgia winning their first two matches against Alabama and Auburn.
Noticed the conference parity kicked in a little. Vols seem to be underachieving a bit, Bicknell is struggling in the #2 slot
Hmm former Gator Bicknell is struggling at two for the Vols and Tennessee is struggling. Does anyone see any Parallel here?
Lol, I did find that interesting. Still trying to figure out why he sat last year Vols with a legit #1 player in Monday, roster loaded with transfers including 5 post graduate guys and 2 regular seniors. They have one underclassman, a soph from Japan. Monday probably doesn't stay next year so they would return one player at best
Facing Bama today.... Won doubles point and got off to a nice start in singles....but lost momentum somewhat Nefve wins easily in straight sets Grant beaten pretty badly in staright sets Bonetto wins his first set 6-3.....then wins 2 more games in the next 2 sets. Not good Braswell loses first set 3-6, headed to second set TB Orli wins first set 6-1, loses second set TB, now down 1-3 in third Greif with a very nice straight set win They blow this match will be worse than the Miss St debacle, somebody needs to stand up
Braswell had 4-5 set points in the tiebreak, lost them all and his match Orli is down 3-5 Every guy on the court for Bama is a freshman or soph...and they have been obliterated against any good competition. Lost first two SEC matches 0-7 and 1-6.
Orli rebounds and gets to 6-5 and holds multiple match points. Loses them all and forced to a TB where he is dismantled by a fellow freshman. UF loses at home to a younger team ranked 40 plus spots below UF. 1-2 in conference vs the easy part of the schedule, losing record overall. Not much else to say, awful day
Worse loss in many years. In the past we always beat teams ranked way below us. Today the team didn’t respond when Alabama put some competitive pressure on them. How bad is this in conference loss? It was the first conference win since 2021 for Alabama which is currently made up of freshman and sophomores.
This one is still hard for me to wrap my head around. Sometimes a loss like this is a wakeup call, sometimes it starts a spiral....guess we will see which. Clearly the Miss St loss wasn't enough to change the trajectory so I'm not overly optimistic with this bunch
This group is young and inexperienced as far as playing big matches in front of large crowds. Yesterday's attendance was phenomenal. The ladies tennis team was there creating enough noise to drown out a jet engine. I can't say this group will grow into the unit we want to support out there match after match. What I can say is the coaches are committed to pushing the players as far as possible to create the results we all want. I think part of the problem at this point is these guys want to uphold the recent Gator Men's Tennis tradition so badly, they forget who they are because they just are not ready to take on the challenges every SEC men's tennis team will present as this season unfolds. I can tell you it was no fun at all having to watch a lightly regarded Alabama team create a dog pile on the baseline of court five after finishing off their upset victory! If that does not leave a lasting impression as to what it means to beat the University of Florida Men's Tennis team at home, we are in for some lean years!
Knowing Bama put all freshmen and sophs out there was the worst aspect for me.....AND they literally had not played a match outside of Alabama until this Friday....first 14 matches all in state. Go to So Car and get destroyed 0-7 on Friday and somehow beat UF in Gainesville 2 days later. Crazy
