The Florida men’s tennis team picked up its
biggest victory of the season on Sunday, beating No. 6 Tennessee, 4-3, in
Knoxville. After winning the doubles point, Gator freshman Luke Johnson
clinched the win with a three-set victory at No. 6 singles over the Vols’ John
Collins.
Florida (8-6, 2-2 SEC) used a solid
performance in doubles to earn the first point against Tennessee (15-6, 2-3
SEC). UT opened with a victory at No. 1 doubles, as No. 17 Mikelis Libietis and
Hunter Reese beat Bob van Overbeek and Stephane Piro, 8-5. Junior
Florent Diep and Johnson responded with a win at No. 3 doubles, beating
the Vols’ Jarryd Chaplin and Brandon Fickey, 8-5.
On court two, the Gators’ Billy Federhofer
and Gordon Watson were even at 7-7 with Tennessee’s Collins and Edward
Jones, but the UF duo won the final two games to secure the doubles point and
give Florida a 1-0 lead in the match.
The momentum carried over into singles for
the Gators, as Piro was first off the court with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Fickey at
No. 3 singles. Federhofer came in next to give UF a 3-0 lead, beating Chaplin,
6-4, 6-4, on court four.
The Vols mounted a comeback that made things
interesting. Jones beat Watson at No. 5 singles and Libietis, ranked sixth in
the nation, beat Diep at No. 1 singles to pull within 3-2. In No. 2 singles,
Reese took the first set from van Overbeek, 6-2, but van Overbeek fought back
with a 7-5 second-set win to force a third set. Reese was too much in the end,
outlasting van Overbeek, 6-0, in the third set to even the match at 3-3
overall.
In the deciding match on court six, Johnson
and Collins split the first two sets, with Johnson winning the second in a
tiebreak after dropping the first set. In the third set, Johnson got ahead 3-1,
but then lost the next three games and trailed 4-3. Johnson then rallied to take
four of the next five games and win the match, clinching the Gators’ first win
over a top-10 opponent this season.
