The 17th-ranked Florida men’s tennis team had
a long, hard fought match on Friday night, eventually taking down No. 8 Kentucky
4-3 at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex. With the victory, the Gators
improved to 13-9 overall with a 6-5 mark in the Southeastern Conference.
Florida was able to grab an early lead by
taking the doubles point. Mike Alford and Luke Johnson teamed up at No. 2
doubles for the Gators and beat UK’s Grant Roberts and Anthony Rossi 8-5 to get
things started. On court one, the Wildcats’ Tom Jomby and Kevin Lai, ranked
eighth nationally, beat 35th-ranked Stephane Piro and Bob van Overbeek 8-6.
Florent Diep and Gordon Watson went up an
early break at No. 2 doubles against Kentucky’s Ryuji Hirooka and Beck
Pennington, but the UK duo came back to tie the match at 7-7. The Gators earned
another break to go ahead 8-7, then Watson held serve to secure the doubles
victory.
In singles, Kentucky evened the match after
Pennington beat Johnson 6-4, 6-4 on court six. Watson put the Gators back in
front, beating Lai 6-3, 6-3 at No. 5 singles. Ten minutes later, Alford
finished off Roberts 7-5, 6-1 on court four. After falling behind 2-5 in the
first set, Alford won 11 of the next 12 games to win his match.
Jomby, ranked 21st nationally, cut into the
Gators lead after beating Diep 6-4, 6-3 on court two. No. 19-ranked Rossi then
evened the match at 3-3, beating Piro 6-1, 7-6 (5) at the top singles position,
leaving the deciding point on court three between van Overbeek and Kentucky’s
Charles Minc.
After winning a tough first set in a
tiebreaker, van Overbeek and Minc both held serve the entire second set. Minc
then won the tiebreak to force a deciding third set. After both players held to
open the final set, Minc finally earned a break and then held serve for a 3-1
advantage. Van Overbeek got a break back to even at 4-4, then held to go up
5-4. At 30-30 in the next game, Minc hit a shot deep after a long rally to set
up a break and match point for van Overbeek, which he converted after Minc
forced a shot wide, giving van Overbeek the deciding point and a win for the
Gators.
