Florida Gators
Wake Forest (ITA Kickoff)
No. 5 Gator Men's Tennis Advances Past Wake Forest, 6-1, to National Team Indoors
Sunday, January 29, 2012 | Men's Tennis
The No. 5 Florida (3-0) men's tennis team advanced to the ITA Men's National Team Indoors on Sunday with a 6-1 win over Wake Forest (4-1) in the ITA Kick-off Weekend in Gainesville. The Gators earned one of 16 spots in the national tournament, hosted by the University of Virginia Feb. 17-20 in Charlottesville, Va.
“I'm really glad that our team was able to advance to the ITA Indoors to be able to get that exposure so that we can be better prepared for SEC play, the SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament,” said head coach Andy Jackson. “It's a huge bonus. We're very excited to beat a solid Wake Forest team that was extremely ready to play.”
Once again, Florida swept all three doubles matches to earn the first point. Billy Federhofer (North Miami, Fla.) and Nassim Slilam (Paris, France) quickly won at the first position, 8-3, over the Demon Deacons' Amogh Prabhakar and David Hopkins. Minutes later, Andrew Butz (Vero Beach, Fla.) and Bob van Overbeek (Boca Raton, Fla.) clinched the doubles point with an 8-5 win at the No. 3 position against Danny Kreyman and Adam Lee.
Frank Carleton (Naples, Fla.), a transfer from Wake Forest this season, teamed with Spencer Newman (Miami, Fla.) for an 8-6 win over Alex Tsai and Conner Sherwood on court two.
“I had to really keep my emotions in check,” said Carleton. “I tried not to even talk to the guys before the match was finished and I tried to keep to myself and focus on the Gators winning, and that's what we did.
“[Spencer and I] are playing good. We're making our opponents work, we're not giving them any free points. We're doing a lot of things well. There are definitely some things that we can do better, but for the most part we're doing well.”
In singles action, Florent Diep (Paris, France) won in just over an hour against Sherwood on court four, 6-4, 6-2, to give UF a 2-0 lead in the match. Carleton then disposed of former teammate Prabhakar, 6-3, 6-1, at No. 3 singles.
“I've probably hit with [Prabhakar] hundreds of times the past two seasons,” said Carleton. “It was fun. I went out there and made a lot of balls, didn't underestimate anybody and just played tennis. I had a good match and we got a win.”
“It's a lot to play a team that you used to play for,” said Coach Jackson. “Psychologically it's very hard. I thought he handled himself very, very well.”
Federhofer secured the win at No. 6 singles, earning a straight-set win over Tsai, 6-1, 6-2. Newman, playing at the fifth position, beat Lee, 6-1, 6-4. At the top singles spot, van Overbeek pulled out a first-set tiebreaker and a close second set to beat Hopkins, 7-6 (3), 6-4.
Slilam fell in a third-set pro tiebreak to No. 115-ranked Kreyman, 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (12-10).
Next weekend, the Gators will travel to Charlottesville, Va., for a regular-season matchup against No. 2 Virginia at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4. UF will return home Feb. 11-12 for matches against Florida St. and Illinois.
| 2012 University of Florida Men's Tennis | ||||||
| Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex | ||||||
| Gainesville, Florida | ||||||
| Sunday, January 29, 2011 | ||||||
| Doubles | FLORIDA | vs | Wake Forest | Winner |
| Score (match length) |
| Billy Federhofer (4) | Amogh Prabhakar | |||||
| No. 1 - | Nassim Slilam (4) | David Hopkins | UF | 8-3 (:55) | ||
| Frank Carleton (41) | Danny Kreyman | |||||
| No. 2 - | Spencer Newman (41) | Adam Lee | UF | 8-6 (1:13) | ||
| Bob van Overbeek (25) | Alex Tsai | |||||
| No. 3 - | Andrew Butz (25) | Conner Sherwood | UF* | 8-5 (:56) | ||
| Singles | FLORIDA | vs | Wake Forest | Winner |
| Score (match length) |
| No. 1 - | Bob van Overbeek (69) | David Hopkins | UF | 7-6 (3), 6-4 (1:57) | ||
| No. 2 - | Nassim Slilam | Danny Kreyman (115) | WF | 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (12-10) (2:05) | ||
| No. 3 - | Frank Carleton | Amogh Prabhakar | UF | 6-3, 6-1 (1:21) | ||
| No. 4 - | Florent Diep | Conner Sherwood | UF | 6-4, 6-2 (1:12) | ||
| No. 5 - | Spencer Newman (84) | Adam Lee | UF | 6-1, 6-4 (1:43) | ||
| No. 6 - | Billy Federhofer | Alex Tsai | UF* | 6-1, 6-2 (1:22) | ||
| FINAL SCORE: | Florida - 6 | Wake Forest - 1 | * Clinched victory | |||
| Records: | Florida (3-0) | Wake Forest (4-1) | ||||
| Order of Finish: | Doubles: 1, 3, 2 | Singles: 4, 3, 6, 5, 1, 2 | ||||
| Attendance: | 176 | |||||
