Gainesville’s Trey Johnson won the clinching match as the No. 35 Florida men’s tennis team posted a 6-1 win over No. 64 Furman on Saturday afternoon at UF’s Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex. The Gators improve to 2-0 with the win while the Paladins slip to 1-3.
“It was a good win for us,” head coach Andy Jackson said. “Furman was excellent competition today and when the matches got tight we again responded to the pressure just like in yesterday’s win over UCF. Next up is South Florida on the road and that will be another big test under pressure since that will be more of a SEC-caliber match.”
For the second day in a row, UF swept the doubles point to open play and for the second day in a row the clincher came from Chris McDonald and Hamid Mirzadeh at No. 1. On Saturday, the tandem was a 8-6 winner over James Cameron and John Chesworth.
A hotly contested series of singles matches wrapped up the afternoon’s play as four of the matches went to a third set and all but the No. 4 match featured at least one moment of doubt. In all the Gators took five of the matches though to post their second win in as many outings this season. Olivier Levant was the winner at No. 4 for Florida in a 7-5, 6-2 match, the only one of the day that was reasonably lopsided. Troy Hahn gave UF a 3-0 edge by winning at No. 2 and snapping a personal losing skid in the process. Hahn battled hard to win the opening set by a 7-5 count and ran out to a 6-3 final in the second.
Johnson clinched the UF win at No. 6 with his team high 17th win of the year, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 over a zestful Ryan McCarthy of Furman. After rallying from his first set defeat to capture the second set, Johnson won four of the final five games in the match, including a pair of service breaks to put himself in position to win. Johnson secured the Gator win with a service winner on the first of a triple match point.
Although the victory had been won, UF continued to play hard. Ross Greenstein battled to post a win at No. 5 for UF 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. Greenstein trailed 3-0 in the third set but recovered for his second win in as many days. Mirzadeh fought right to the end of his 2:36 match. Trailing 5-2 in the third set he eventually forced a tiebreaker before falling, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (2). Eleazar Magallan trailed 5-3 with his opponent serving in the third set of his match but Magallan saved two match points, won the next three games and forced a tiebreaker. Magallan saved another match point in the breaker and would win a rare three-tiebreaker decision, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (7).
Florida returns to action next Sunday when the Gators travel to Tampa to face the USF Bulls at noon on Feb. 3.
NCAA Men's Tennis
Florida 6, Furman 1
Doubles
No. 1 #32 Chris McDonald/Hamid Mirzadeh (UF) d. James Cameron/John Chesworth (FU), 8-6
No. 2 #36 Olivier Levant/Eleazar Magallan (UF) d. Patrick Fillnow/Andrew Rogers (FU), 8-5
No. 3 Ross Greenstein/Ryan Sherry (UF) d. Chris Henderson/Peter Netzler (FU), 9-8 (3)
Singles
No. 1 John Chesworth (FU) d. #110 Hamid Mirzadeh (UF), 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (2)
No. 2 Troy Hahn (UF) d. James Cameron (FU), 7-5, 6-3
No. 3 Eleazar Magallan (UF) d. Patrick Fillnow (FU), 7-6 (5), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (7)
No. 4 #98 Olivier Levant (UF) d. Chris Henderson (FU), 7-5, 6-2
No. 5 Ross Greenstein (UF) d. Patrick Gaughan (FU), 6-4, 3-6, 6-4
No. 6 Trey Johnson (UF) d. Ryan McCarthy (FU), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
