A sweep of doubles play guided the No. 17 LSU (12-4, 5-3 SEC) men's tennis team past No. 29 Florida (9-10, 3-3), 4-3, on Friday night at UF's Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex. The match was delayed for three hours and 15 minutes due to rain and in the interest if time the singles matches were played first. The two teams tied 3-3 in singles and LSU would take two quick doubles matches for the victory, the Tigers' fifth in a row over the Gators in Gainesville.
"I'm really happy with singles," UF head coach Ian Duvenhage said. "I think we did a great job there. This team (LSU) beat (No. 6) Tennessee a few days ago. They're a solid Top 15 team and we took them to the wire with chances to win in singles. We were just overmatched in doubles. They handled us pretty easily there."
Singles play saw UF win the odd numbered matches and LSU win the even matches. The two teams alternated wins en route to the 3-3 split. Troy Hahn got UF up 1-0 with a 7-5, 6-2 win at No. 3 but LSU countered when Anthony Mateljan beat Trey Johnson in a brisk three-set match at No. 6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. LSU went up 2-1 when Sebastian Rutka took down Matt Behrmann 6-4, 6-3 at No. 4 but UF countered with a win at No. 5 by West Nott.
The teams split the top two matches, each pitting a pair of ranked players. The No. 1 match saw 47th ranked Jeremy Wurtzman of UF but the Gators up 3-2 with a win over 10th ranked Ajay Ramaswami, the highest ranked win of Wurtzman's young career. After dropping the first set 6-3, Wurtzman capped a 6-3 win in the second with a powerful winner down the line. Wurtzman broke serve in the third set's opening game and rolled from there to post the 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win. Facing 72nd ranked Olivier Levant, 64th ranked Dan Kiernan also recovered from losing the first set to win in three. Levant led 6-3, 4-1 but Kiernan would win the next four games and eventually take the second set in a tiebreaker. Levant battled down 5-2 in the final set and had two break points at 5-4 in the third but lost the both. Levant's return of Kiernan's second match point sailed long, evening doubles play at 3-3.
LSU made quick work of the Gators in doubles to claim the victory. Anthony Mateljan and Ramaswami needed just 34 minutes to post a 8-1 win at No. 1 and Sebastian Rutka and Kiernan clinched the win with their 8-3 win at No. 1. The No. 2 match was suspended tied at 5-5.
Florida will return to action on April 4 when the Gators host Alabama at 3:00 pm.
Singles
No. 1 #47 Jeremy Wurtzman (UF) d. #10 Ajay Ramaswami (LSU), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
No. 2 #64 Dan Kiernan (LSU) d. #72 Olivier Levant (UF), 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4
No. 3 Troy Hahn (UF) d. Sanjin Sadovich (LSU), 7-5, 6-2
No. 4 Sebastian Rutka (LSU) d. Matt Behrmann (UF), 6-4, 6-3
No. 5 West Nott (UF) d. Jesse Smatt (LSU), 6-4, 6-3
No. 6 Anthony Mateljan (LSU) d. Trey Johnson (UF), 6-3, 3-6, 6-2
Doubles
No. 1 #29 Sebastian Rutka/Dan Kiernan (LSU) d. #50 Olivier Levant/Jeremy Wurtzman (UF), 8-3
No. 2 Matt Behrmann/Troy Hahn (UF) v. #40 Jesse Smatt/Sanjin Sadovich (LSU), Susp.
No. 3 Anthony Mateljan/Ajay Ramaswami (LSU) d. West Nott/Trey Johnson (UF), 8-1
