Gators Men’s Tennis Ends Weekend With Win

The Florida men’s tennis team beat the SMU Mustangs 5-2 to improve to 3-0 Sunday.

The Gators were coming off back-to-back home wins after the doubleheader Friday against The Citadel 7-0 and North Florida 6-1.

Early Lead

Adhithya Ganesan and Tanapatt Nirundorn put the Gators in a good position to secure the doubles point when they defeated SMU’s Maks Silagy-Jerry Barton 6-2 at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.

The Mustangs duo of Adam Neff-Trevor Svajda took an early 5-1 lead on Jeremy Jin-Aidan Kim. However, the Gators pair battled back closing the gap to 5-4. The match went unfinished after JanMagnus Johnson-Nate Bonetto won the doubles point for the Gators by beating Huntley Allen-Julian Steinhausen 6-2.

Doubles go to the Orange and Blue!

Bonetto/Johnson and Nirundorn/Ganeson each take their sets, 6-2, to take the first point.

UF up 1-0 pic.twitter.com/UteADp3H7T

— Gators Men's Tennis (@GatorsMTN) January 21, 2024

Competitive Singles

After starting the day with a win as doubles partners, Nirundorn and Ganesan would end their day quickly during singles. Nirundorn swept Eric Hadigian 6-0, 6-0, meanwhile Ganesan took care of Liam Krall 6-3, 6-3. This win closed out Ganesan’s perfect weekend, as he finished 3-0 in doubles action and 3-0 in singles play.

With the Gators leading 3-0, Florida was looking for one last victory to secure its win, but the Mustangs would not go down easily. Svajda took down Kim 6-3, 6-3. It would not be enough to give SMU the win when Jin defeated Neff 6-4, 6-2 to lift Florida to the win 4-1.

Jin for the win!

Jin (UF) def. Neff (SMU), 6-4 6-2

UF takes a W, 4-1 current score#GoGators pic.twitter.com/YOi8e9hmfv

— Gators Men's Tennis (@GatorsMTN) January 21, 2024

The day was not over, as two matches were still going on. Maks Silagy gave SMU another point after beating JanMagnus Johnson 6-4, 7-5. Bonetto and Barton were the last ones on the court and gave everyone a show. It was the only match to reach the third set after Bonetto won the first 6-3 and Barton stole the second 7-6. It was Bonetto who would take it home in the third winning 13-11, which finished the Gators 5-2 day.

That’s a Gators DUB! #GoGators | presented by @WellsFargo pic.twitter.com/8AFZxf5h3L

— Gators Men's Tennis (@GatorsMTN) January 21, 2024

Up Next

Florida will travel to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to face the 15th-ranked Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Saturday for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Kickoff Weekend.