Florida Gators
Auburn
No. 9 Florida Men's Tennis Defeats No. 55 Auburn, 6-1
Saturday, March 20, 2004 | Men's Tennis
The ninth-ranked University of Florida men's tennis team returned to SEC action Friday evening as the Gators picked up a 6-1 win over No. 55 Auburn in Gainesville. With the win, the Gators improved to 9-3 overall and 2-1 in the SEC. Auburn slipped to 5-7 on the season and is in search of its first conference win as the Tiger's SEC mark moved to 0-3.
Florida took a hard-earned doubles point, which came down to a tiebreaker on the top court. UF's Janne Holmia and Martin Stiegwardt cruised to an 8-3 win over Brett Hunter and Nick Lane on court three. Florida's Vladimir Obradovic and Trey Johnson seemed to have things in control one spot higher in the lineup when they had Robert Lathouwers and Rodrigo Minozzo down triple match point. However, the Tiger duo rallied to force and win a tiebreaker, 7-2. UF's Hamid Mirzadeh and Chris Brandi used the same margin on court number one to slip past Alex Schweizer and Gabor Zoltan Pelva to clinch the doubles point for the Gators.
Mirzadeh (No. 17) helped UF build its lead to 2-0 when he took out No. 70 Gabor Zoltan Pelva, 6-3, 6-4 at the top of the singles lineup. The appearance for Mirzadeh marked his first in a singles match since March 5 at Vanderbilt. During that outing, Mirzadeh was injured and was held out of the singles the next two matches at Kentucky and at USF.
Stiegwardt brought UF within one point of winning the match when he defeated Hunter on court six, 7-5, 6-3. Lane got the Tigers on the board when he took a straight set win over Florida's Ryan Sherry one spot higher in the line up (6-4, 6-2).
Holmia fought back on court two to give the Gators the win as he dropped his first set 5-7 to Schweizer before going on to win the next two 6-1, 6-3. Brandi's match against Minozzo on court four went the same way as he rallied from losing the first set to stretch the Gator lead to 5-1 with a three set win (4-6, 7-5, 7-3).
Obradovic rounded out the scoring for Florida as he outlasted Lathouwers on court three, 6-7 (6), 7-5, 7-6 (4).
Florida will round out the weekend as the Gators take on No. 40 Alabama on Sunday, March 21 at 1 p.m. in Gainesville. Last season, UF handed the Crimson Tide a 5-2 loss in the regular season before the two met in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals in Oxford, MS, where UF came away with a 4-0 victory.
Florida Men's Tennis vs. Auburn
Friday, March 19, 2004
Doubles:
1. Mirzadeh/Brandi (UF) def. No. 24 Schweizer/Pelva (AU), 9-8 (2)
2. Lathouwers/Minozzo (AU) def. Obradovic/Johnson (UF), 9-8 (2)
3. Holmia/Stiegwardt (UF) def. Hunter/Lane (AU), 8-3
Order of Finish: 3, 2, 1
Singles:
Order of finish: 1, 6, 5, 2, 4, 3
