Florida Gators
Gator Invitational - Miami
M-Tennis Impressive on Final Day of Gator Invite
Sunday, September 28, 2003 | Men's Tennis
The University of Florida men's tennis team won five of six singles matches against Miami and two of three doubles contests versus the Hurricanes on the final day of the Gator Invitational held at the Ring Tennis Complex.
"It's great to finish strong," UF head coach Andy Jackson said. "We're excited about a decent weekend. I thought that Miami was a little tired and to our credit we took advantage of it. The two matches that really stood out for us today were played by Chris Brandi and Ryan Sherry."
Chris Brandi (Boca Raton, Fla.), who is unranked in the preseason listings, produced a convincing 6-3, 6-4 upset win over Miami's Josh Cohen who is ranked No. 99 in the country.
"Chris played a smart, solid match and he deserved to win," Jackson said. "This is a good victory for him because Josh was one of the better junior players in the world last year."
While Ryan Sherry (Ft. Myers, Fla.) didn't earn a victory on the court Sunday, his performance was gusty throughout the 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 decision to Colin Purcell. Sherry fought off several break points down 4-1 in the third set and held serve. He then broke Purcell to bring the set score to 3-4 on his serve. But the Gator sophomore couldn't finish on his first game point, and Purcell finally prevailed on his second break opportunity of the set before serving out for the match.
The star of the weekend was UF freshman Vladimir Obradovic (Belgrade, Serbia), who posted an impressive 3-0 record during the three-day event, including Sunday's 6-1, 6-3 victory over Miami's Tim Krebs and Saturday's 6-3, 6-2 upset over No. 27-ranked Uli Kiendl from USF.
"It felt unbelievable," said Obradovic on his Gator debut. "I couldn't wait all week for this week. I was so excited about playing my first matches for the Gators. This was a great experience."
"I wasn't surprised by his performance this weekend because we think he can compete at a high level nationally," Jackson said. "The only thing that surprised me was how composed Vladimir played in his collegiate debut. No matter how experienced and talented he his, this was still his first set of matches. I think he did have some rookie jitters, but he was able to get past it without allowing it to effect the scores."
Also producing singles victories on Sunday for the Gators included sophomore Jordan Dolberg (Pembroke Pines, Fla.), senior Trey Johnson (Gainesville, Fla.) and freshman Martin Stiegwardt (Quito, Ecuador).
Dolberg defeated John Hoyes 6-4, 6-4, while Johnson earned a solid 6-4, 6-1 decision over Eric Hechtman and Stiegwardt made quick work of Jonathan Ounjian 6-1, 6-2.
The doubles portion of the Gator Invitational concluded when UF's doubles team of Trey Johnson and Vladimir Obradovic emerged with a hard-fought victory over Miami's Tim Krebs and Colin Purcell. With the 8-game pro set on serve for the majority of the match, the Gator duo earned an important break in the 11th game. Johnson then held his serve at love to give UF a 7-5 lead. After the Hurricanes held, Obradovic served out for the win, fighting off one break point to earn the victory.
Also competing on Sunday were athletes from South Florida and Mississippi State. The Bulls won both doubles matches played, while the two schools split the four singles matches contested.
Gator Men's Tennis Invitational
Ring Tennis Complex, Gainesville, Fla.
Sunday, September 28, 2003
Complete Results
Doubles
Trey Johnson/Vladimir Obradovic (UF) def. Tim Krebs/Colin Purcell (Miami) 8-6
Chris Brandi/Martin Stiegwardt (UF) def. John Hoyes II/Jonathan Ounjian (Miami) 8-4
Josh Cohen/Eric Hechtman (Miami) def. Ryan Sherry/Stefan Tell (UF) 8-6
Paco Antelo/Karim Benmansour (USF) def. Luiz Carvalho/Jose-Carlos Pinto (Miss. St.) 8-4
Renato Silveira/Uli Kiendl (USF) def. Matt Armstrong/Florent Girod (Miss. St.) 8-4
Singles
Vladimir Obradovic (UF) def. Tim Krebs (Miami) 6-1, 6-3
Jordan Dolberg (UF) def. John Hoyes II (Miami) 6-4, 6-4
Trey Johnson (UF) def. Eric Hechtman (Miami) 6-4, 6-1
Colin Purcell (Miami) def. Ryan Sherry (UF) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
Chris Brandi (UF) def. No. 99 Josh Cohen (Miami) 6-3, 6-4
Martin Stiegwardt (UF) def. Jonathan Ounjian (Miami) 6-1, 6-2
Jose-Carlos Pinto (Miss. St.) def. Renato Silveira (USF) 6-2, 6-3
Paco Antelo (USF) def. Florent Girod (Miss. St.) 6-4, 7-6
Juan Barragan (USF) def. Max Fomine (Miss. St.) 6-4, 6-3
Matt Armstrong (Miss. St.) def. German Escallon (USF) 7-5, 6-1
END OF REPORT
