Florida Gators
South Carolina
Men?s Tennis Defeats USC In Regular Season Home Ender
Saturday, April 10, 2004 | Men's Tennis
The eighth-ranked University of Florida men's tennis team brought a close to its 2004 regular season home slate as the Gators defeated No. 36 South Carolina Saturday morning, 5-2, in Gainesville. The match also marked the final regular season home appearance for Florida senior Trey Johnson. With the win, UF kept its SEC title hopes alive as the Gators improved to 13-6 overall and 6-3 in conference play. South Carolina dropped to 14-10 overall and 3-6 in the league.
Florida finished the regular season with a 10-1 record in Gainesville and are 34-2 all-time under third-year UF head coach Andy Jackson.
UF had the doubles point in just over 50 minutes as the Gators took wins on all three courts. UF's Vladimir Obradovic and Janne Holmia teamed on court two for an 8-3 win over South Carolina's Marcus Westman and Tom Eklund leaving the Gators needing a win on either of the two courts remaining. The clincher came at the top of the lineup where Florida's Hamid Mirzadeh and Chris Brandi outlasted USC's Geraldo Knorr and Pedro Rodrigues. The duo, which entered the ITA poll this week at No. 29, clinched the point for UF for the third straight match. Florida's Stefan Tell and Martin Stiegwardt made it a clean sweep as they took an 8-5 decision on court three over Carl Wermee and Ben Atkinson.
The Gators built the lead to 3-0 with convincing wins by Holmia (No. 59) and Mirzadeh (No. 7) on the top two courts. Holmia took a 6-1, 6-1 win over Eklund on court two for his third win in the last four outings Mirzadeh won his third consecutive straight set match by taking a 6-1, 6-4 win over Westman to get the Gators within one victory of clinching the match.
Jordan Dolberg got the win for Florida on court five where he has been steady since making his first appearance of the season last weekend against Mississippi State. Dolberg improved his singles record to 2-1 with a straight set 6-3, 6-2 win against Atkinson.
Obradovic rounded out the scoring for Florida on court three with an impressive performance in the second set. After taking the tiebreaker in the first set against Wermee, 7-6 (6), Obradovic fell behind 5-0 in the second set. From there, Obradovic won seven straight games to take the second set, 7-5.
Prior to the match, Johnson was honored in a ceremony on the feature court. Johnson has posted a 44-36 singles record in career matches and is 20-17 in doubles competition. He was a member of the 2003 SEC Championship team. The Gators have posted a 65-35 record during Johnson's career and are 27-15 in SEC play.
Florida will complete its regular season slate as it travels to LSU and Arkansas next weekend. The match at LSU will begin at 4 p.m. on April 16 in Baton Rouge, LA. Following that, UF will head to Fayetteville, Ark. to take on the Razorbacks on Sunday, April 18 at 2 p.m.
Florida Men's Tennis vs. South Carolina
Saturday, April 10, 2004
Doubles:
Order of Finish: 2,1,3
Singles:
Order of finish: 2, 1, 5*, 4, 6, 3
* - Clinched win
