Gators Men’s Tennis Defeats Vanderbilt In First Round Of SEC Tourney

The Gators men’s tennis team defeated Vanderbilt 4-2 in the first round of the SEC Tournament in Baton Rouge, La., on Thursday.

After facing a 2-0 deficit, Florida (13-10) won four straight singles matches to advance to the quarterfinal round for the 23rd straight year.

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Rough Start for the Gators

Ten seed Vanderbilt (13-12) got off to a hot start, winning both doubles games to claim the point.

Tanapatt Nirundorn-Adhithya Ganesan fell to Joubert Klopper-Michael Ross 6-2. Aidan Kim-Nate Bonetto came up short against Jeremie Casabon-Nathan Cox 6-4.

Vanderbilt claimed the first singles point, as Danil Panarin took down Jeremy Jin in straight sets 6-3, 6-1.

Comeback Victory

On the verge of elimination, the Gators won four straight singles matches.

Nirundorn got the ball rolling when he defeated Ross in straight sets 6-4, 6-3. After facing a 2-0 deficit in the second set, he won six out of seven games to seal it.

Bonetto followed with a win by defeating Casabon 6-4, 6-3 to tie the match.

The Gators took their first lead after Ganesan defeated Klopper 7-5, 6-1. The first set was back-and-forth, but Ganesan secured a break point to take the lead 6-5, and then held his serve to win 7-5. He carried all the momentum into the second set, winning 6-1.

Kim began his match with a loss in the first set 6-3 against Cox. But, Kim swung the momentum into his favor, taking the second set convincingly 6-2 to force a third. Kim then held on to win the third set 6-4 to give the Gators the win.

Up Next

The seven seed Gators take on the two seed Tennessee Volunteers (21-5) in the quarterfinal round Friday at 3 p.m. ET at the LSU Tennis Complex. The Vols defeated the Gators on March 10,  6-1 win in Knoxville. Friday’s winner will face the winner of the other quarterfinal between Mississippi State and South Carolina in Saturday’s semifinal.