Florida Gators
Illinois
Men's Tennis Falls To Top-Ranked Illinois, 6-1
Wednesday, March 24, 2004 | Men's Tennis
The University of Florida ninth-ranked men's tennis team gave top-ranked Illinois all it could handle in the doubles points before the Illini carried the momentum on to the singles courts for a 6-1 win Tuesday night in front of 522 fans at the Ring Tennis Complex in Gainesville. With the loss, UF fell to 10-4 on the season, while Illinois improved to 16-0.
Illinois got the doubles point, but not without a fight. UF's Vladimir Obradovic and Trey Johnson were tied at four with Illinois' 33rd-ranked Michael Calkins and Chris Martin on court two. However, the Illini pair took control and went on to an 8-5 victory. UF's Stefan Tell and Martin Stiegwardt forced the issue with their 8-4 win on court three over Pramod Dabir and Ryler DeHeart.
The point came down to the top of the lineup where Florida's Hamid Mirzadeh and Chris Brandi squared off against third-ranked Brian Wilson and Phil Stolt. The Illinois duo raced out to a 5-0 lead before the Gators got on the board. From there, UF's tandem fought back to force a tiebreaker. Mirzadeh and Brandi were up, 6-5, however the Illini reeled off three straight for the 9-8 (6) victory.
In singles play, DeHeart increased the lead to 2-0 as he took out UF's Stefan Tell on court three, 6-1, 6-4. From there, Calkins got the Illini to within one point of clinching the match with his 6-2, 6-1 win over Ryan Sherry one spot higher in the order. Illinois' 87th-ranked GD Jones provided the decisive effort as he defeated Stiegwardt on court six, 6-2, 6-4.
Wilson (No. 4) added to the Illinois point column with a 6-2, 7-6 (4) win over Mirzadeh at the top of the lineup. Mirzadeh went into the match having won both of his last two outings, which came against ranked opponents. The lead increased to 6-0 as 67thr-ranked Martin took control of the third set against Brandi on court five for a 6-2, 3-6, 10-4 win.
Obradovic provided the only point for the Gators by knocking off Stolt (No. 29) on court two 7-6 (1), 6-4. With the win, Obradovic improved to a team best 11-1 on the season and managed to hand a loss in a singles match to a member of the Illini team for the 12th time this year.
UF travels to No. 12 Georgia on Friday, March 26 for a 5 p.m. meeting with the Bulldogs. The weekend will conclude in Knoxville, TN, where the Gators take on the 21st-ranked Volunteers at 1 p.m. on Sunday, March 28.
Florida Men's Tennis vs. Illinois
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Doubles:
- (33) Calkins/Martin (Illini) def. Obradovic/Johnson (UF), 8-5
- Tell/Stiegwardt (UF) def. Dabir/DeHeart (Illini), 8-4
Order of Finish: 2, 3, 1
Singles:
Order of finish: 3, 4, 6, 1, 5, 2
