Florida Gators
Ole Miss
Men's Tennis Edges No. 3 Ole Miss, 4-3
Sunday, April 4, 2004 | Men's Tennis
The University of Florida men's tennis team knocked off its highest ranked opponent of the season and picked up a critical Southeastern Conference win as the 13th-ranked Gators defeated No. 3 Ole Miss, 4-3, Sunday afternoon in Gainesville. With the win, UF improved to 12-6 overall and 5-3 in the league. Ole Miss, which came into the weekend on top of the conference standings, fell for the second straight time as the Rebels slipped to 16-3 on the year and 7-2 in the SEC.
Florida grabbed the doubles point when Stefan Tell and Martin Stiegwardt jumped out to a 4-0 lead on court three against Juan Pablo Di Cesare and Frank Aarum. The UF duo gave up only games as they took an 8-2 win to get UF to within one match of the 1-0 lead. Hamid Mirzadeh and Chris Brandi paired to give the Gators the victory as they were tied with eighth-ranked Paul Ciorascu and Catalin Gard on the feature court. UF took a 7-6 advantage and then broke when the Ole Miss pair double faulted.
Mirzadeh kept things going in the singles as he increased the lead to 2-0 with his 6-1, 6-4 win over Gard. The win was Mirzadeh's second straight over a ranked opponent, both of which were the first singles contest to finish this weekend. Gard, who entered the match ranked fourth in the country, fell for only the third time this season.
Ole Miss' 29th-ranked Claes Lindholm got the Rebels on to the board with his 6-2, 6-4 win over Florida's Vladimir Obradovic (No. T100) on court three. Moments later UF was back on top by two and within one of clinching the match when Jordan Dolberg took a straight set win over Aarum on court five (6-3, 6-2). The victory was Dolberg's first dual match win of his UF career as he entered the singles lineup last Friday against Mississippi State.
The Rebels evened the match at three with wins when Cesare worked past Brandi on court four (7-4, 6-5) and Ciorascu (No. 82) outlasted UF's Holmia (No. 39) 7-6 (9) 6-3 on court two. The Rebel wins forced a decisive match on court three where Ryan Sherry took on Eric Claesson. The match went to a third set where Sherry ran out to a 4-1 lead. Claesson made it 4-2, however, Sherry broke serve to bring it to 5-2 and then held on for a 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 win.
Florida will take on South Carolina on Saturday, April 10 at 10 p.m. in Gainesville to round out the regular season home schedule. The match will also mark the final regular season home appearance for senior Trey Johnson who will be honored in a ceremony prior to the match.
Florida Men's Tennis vs. Mississippi
Sunday, April 04, 2004
Doubles:
Order of Finish: 3,1,2
Singles:
Order of finish: 1, 3, 5, 4, 2, 6
