The University of Florida men’s tennis team started the
dual-match season with an impressive 6-1 victory on the road at No. 5 Baylor in
Waco, Texas, on Sunday afternoon. After winning all three doubles matches to
earn the first point, the Gators won five of six singles matches for the final
margin.
Sophomore Andrew Butz (Vero Beach, Fla.) and junior Bob
van Overbeek (Boca Raton, Fla.) jumped out to a fast start and won 8-5 over
BU’s Kike Grangeiro and Mate Zsiga at the No. 3 doubles spot. Junior transfer Frank
Carleton (Naples, Fla.) and sophomore Spencer Newman (Miami,
Fla.) played a tight match against Baylor’s Diego Galeano and Roberto Maytin,
but earned a late break and clinched the doubles point for Florida, winning 8-6
at the No. 2 doubles position.
Junior Billy Federhofer (North Miami, Fla.) and
senior Nassim Slilam (Paris, France) completed the doubles sweep
for UF with an 8-5 win in the top position against Marko Krickovic and Roberto
Verzaal.
In singles action, Federhofer breezed past Grangeiro in the sixth
position, 6-0, 6-1, to push Florida’s lead to 2-0 overall. Zsiga got Baylor on
the board with a straight-set win over van Overbeek in the No. 1 position, 6-4,
6-2. It proved to be the Bears' only point of the match, as the Gators swept
the remaining four courts. Slilam gave UF a 3-1 lead after downing Galeano,
6-3, 7-5, at No. 2 singles.
Sophomore Florent Diep (Paris, France), making his
dual-match debut for Florida, clinched the match with a close win over
Krickovic, 7-5, 7-5, at the fourth position.
Carleton and Newman earned the final two points for Florida at No.
3 and No. 5 singles, respectively. Carleton beat Maytin in three sets, 1-6,
6-3, 6-4, and Newman won in a superset tiebreak against Lars Behlen, 6-1, 6-7
(3), 1-0 (10-7).
