Florida Gators
SEC Tournament -Kentucky
Men?s Tennis Advances To Semifinals At SEC Tournament With 4-2 Win Over UK
Saturday, April 23, 2005 | Men's Tennis
For the third straight season and ninth time in the history of the program, the second-seeded fifth-ranked University of Florida men's tennis team advanced to the semifinal round of the SEC Men's Tennis tournament as the Gators opened play against seventh-seeded and No. 11 Kentucky with a 4-2 victory Friday evening in Athens, Ga. With the win, UF improved to 18-5 on the year and will meet No. 9 Georgia on Saturday at 2 p.m. for a trip to the championship match.
The win was UF's 13th in the last 14 outings and sets up a rematch of the 2004 SEC Tournament semifinal match where the Gators fell to the Bulldogs, 4-1. The two programs met during the 2005 regular season in Gainesville where the Gators edged UGA, 4-3.
After Florida's match against Kentucky on Friday was pushed back an hour due to rain in the Athens, the Gators got on the board first by claiming the doubles point. After going 6-5 in the doubles point during the regular season, the Gators kept with the lineup that worked against South Carolina to finish the regular season last Sunday and secured the point with wins on courts two and three.
Florida's Chris Brandi and Jordan Dolberg got UF to within one of clinching the point when they got off to a 4-1 lead and then held off Kentucky's Matt Emery and Macrus Sundh at the bottom of the order, 8-5. Kentucky's sixth-ranked Jesse Witten and Tigran Martiosyan forced the issued by coming away with an 8-6 decision over Florida's 10th-ranked Hamid Mirzadeh and Greg Ouellette on the top court. Stefan Tell and Nestor Briceno made it 1-0 in Florida's favor when they posted the same score against Alex Hume and Nate Emgy. The win was the fourth in as many outings for the Gator tandem and their fifth out of six dual match appearances in 2005.
In singles play, Kentucky jumped out to a 2-1 lead when Witten (No. 3 nationally) took a 6-4, 6-2 decision over Mirzadeh (No. 31) on the number one court. Moments later, Hume gave the Wildcats their first lead of the match with a 6-3, 6-1 win against Ouellette (No. 39). The loss was Ouellette's first to an SEC opponent in dual play on his career (11-1).
Obradovic, who got back into the ITA rankings at No. 103 this week, squared the match at two with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Emgy. His win was his fourth in the last five matches on court three.
Brandi (No. 90) regained the lead for the Gators as he fought off Emery, 6-1, 7-6 (7) on the No. 5 court. With the win, he moved to 16-4 on the season in dual matches which is the second best mark on the squad to Sherry who clinched the match with a 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 victory against Sundh to improve his record to 17-3 on the year.
Florida vs. Kentucky
Singles
Order of Finish – 1, 2, 3, 5, 6
Doubles
Order of Finish - 3, 1, 2
