Florida Gators
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Mississippi State
No. 7 Men's Tennis Overpowers No. 55 Mississippi St., 6-1
Sunday, March 29, 2009 | Men's Tennis
The No. 7 UF men's tennis team (12-6, 3-3) responded to their first home loss of the season on Friday night by crusing past No. 55 Mississippi State (5-10, 1-5), 6-1, on Sunday in Starkville. The victory is Florida's second road win and third conference victory of the year.
The afternoon began on a positive note as all three UF doubles teams came away with victories. Freshman Carlos Cueto (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain) and sophomore Alex Lacroix (Paris, France) downed Ryan Farlow and Antonio Lastre, 8-3, with relative ease. Sophomores Jeff Dadamo (Tampa, Fla.) and Johnny Hamui (Wesley Chapel, Fla.) defeated Louis Cant and Artem Ilyushin by the same margin to clinch the doubles point for the Orange and Blue. The 16th-ranked pair of Antoine Benneteau (Boulogne-Billancourt,France) and Joey Burkhardt (St. Augustine, Fla.) completed the sweep with an 8-4 win on court one against Chris Doerr and Tanner Stump.
Florida continued their momentum into singles play, earning victories in the first four singles matches. Burkhardt was first to finish for Florida, rolling past Lastre, 6-1, 6-1 for his 23rd victory of the year and fourth consective win this spring. Dadamo extended the Gators' advantage to 3-0 after knocking out Stump in straight sets, 6-1, 7-5, becoming the only Gator to win both single matches this weekend.
No. 24 Cueto clinched the match for Florida after defeating No. 108 Farlow, 6-4, 6-1, on court one. With the win, Cueto snapped a three-match losing streak dating back to late February. Benneteau was the fourth of five Gators to win his match in straight sets, upsetting Cant, 6-0, 6-3, to give Florida a 5-0 lead.
With the match already decided in Florida's favor, Hamui took Doerr to a second-set tiebreak, 6-1, 5-7, to take the win and conclude the match for Florida.
The Gators return to Gainesville for their final two home matches of the season next weekend. Florida will host LSU on Friday, April 3 at 3 p.m. and Arkansas on Sunday, April 5 at 1 p.m. The squad will host a post-match clinic on Sunday to all children in eighth grade or below. Admission to both matches is free. Live scoring and official results can be found at www.GatorZone.com.
College Men's Tennis
Starkville, Miss.
A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Final Score: Florida 6, Mississippi State 1
Doubles
No. 1 (18) Benneteau/Burkhardt (UF) def. Doerr/Stump (MSU), 8-4
No. 2 Dadamo/Hamui (UF) def. Cant/Ilyushin (MSU), 8-3
No. 3 Cueto/Lacroix (UF) def. Farlow/Lastre (MSU), 8-3
Singles
No. 1 (24) Carlos Cueto (UF) def. (108) Ryan Farlow (MSU), 6-4, 6-1
No. 2 Artem Ilyushin (MSU) def. (14) Alex Lacroix (UF), 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (13-11)
No. 3 Antoine Benneteau (UF) def. Louis Cant (MSU), 6-0, 6-3
No. 4 Joey Burkhardt (UF) def. Antonio Lastre (MSU), 6-1, 6-1
No. 5 Johnny Hamui (UF) def. Chris Doerr (MSU), 6-4, 7-6 (7-3)
No. 6 Jeff Dadamo (UF) def. Tanner Stump (MSU), 6-1, 7-5
Order of Finish: Doubles – 3, 2, 1 Singles – 4, 6, 1, 3, 2, 5
-UF-
