Florida Men’s Tennis Remains Undefeated At Home

The Gators men’s tennis team remains undefeated at home after a 6-1 victory Monday against the UCF Knights.

Florida broke a four-match losing streak to improve to 4-4. It was the Knights’ first loss of the season after a 7-0 start.

Doubles

The Knights earned the first win on Court 3 when Francisco Llanes-Santiago Giamichelle defeated Jeremy Jin-Henry Jefferson 6-4. On Court 1, Florida’s Nate Bonetto-Aidan Kim beat UCF’s Yassine Dlimi-Mehdi Benchakroun 6-4.

Adhithya Ganesan-Tanapatt Nirundorn won the doubles point for the Gators. They beat Liam Branger-Lleyton Cronje 7-5 giving Florida the one-point lead. The Gator duo improved to 6-1 this season with one match going unfinished.

Gators take the doubles point!

Nirundorn/Ganesan (UF) def. Branger/Cronje (UCF) 7-5#GoGators pic.twitter.com/aevzTyl1Mx

— Gators Men's Tennis (@GatorsMTN) February 19, 2024

Singles

Bonetto ended his day quickly when he gave the Gators their second point by beating Giamichelle 6-1, 6-4 on Court 4. Bonetto is 5-1 in singles competition with one of his matches going unfinished.

Florida went up 3-0 when Nirundorn took out Benchakroun 6-3, 6-3 on Court 5. The win allowed him to improve to 3-3 in singles competition with one unfinished match.

T takes the W! Gators up 3-0.

Nirundorn (UF) def. Benchakroun (UCF), 6-3, 6-3#GoGators pic.twitter.com/HDfs9ddSkA

— Gators Men's Tennis (@GatorsMTN) February 19, 2024

The Gators won the match after Kim got the fourth point by beating Llanes 7-5, 6-2. This was Kim’s first match this season playing on Court 3. It’s been a month since his last singles win during the doubleheader season opener against The Citadel and North Florida. Although Florida got the win after starting 4-0, the teams played out the final matches.

On Court 2, Jin beat Cronje 7-6, 6-3 to put Florida up 5-0. Jin is now 4-1 this season with three unfinished matches. He remains undefeated on Court 2.

Dlimi prevented the sweep, beating Ganesan 6-2, 5-7, 11-9 on Court 1. This is Ganesan’s third straight loss since starting the season 5-0. Dlimi has not been beaten in his last five matches.

To close out the match, Jefferson beat Branger 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 giving the Gators the 6-1 win. This was Jefferson’s second singles match of the season after winning in the team’s first matchup of the year.

Back in the win column!#GoGators | presented by Wells Fargo pic.twitter.com/fGYXrZt2hw

— Gators Men's Tennis (@GatorsMTN) February 19, 2024

Up Next

Florida is now headed into conference play with its next match against the No. 12 Texas A&M Aggies on March 1 at 5 p.m. at home in the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.