Florent Diep Falls at Pensacola Futures Championship
Thursday, November 1, 2012 | Men's Tennis
University of Florida men's tennis player Florent Diep fell to Kyle Edmund, 6-0, 6-4, in the second round of the main draw at the 2012 Pensacola Futures Championship, an ITF Men's Circuit event. Diep entered into the event as an amateur and advanced through four rounds of qualifying earlier this week.
Diep, a junior from Paris, France, could not overcome a sluggish start, dropping the first set 6-0, and lost to Edmund, who won last week's ITF Men's Circuit event in Birmingham. Diep upset No. 8 seed Bjorn Frantangelo, 7-5, 6-1, on Wednesday in the first round.
“I'm happy for Flo,” said head coach Bryan Shelton. “We always say in tennis that you haven't really broken serve until you hold the next game. Well, he broke serve at Regionals at Tallahassee, and now he's held. For him to go through and put four or five wins together in the tournament, I think that's a successful week for him.”
In his last tournament, Diep claimed the first singles title of his Gator career, defeating Georgia State's Victor Valente in the finals of the 2012 USTA/ITA Southeast Regional Championships in Tallahassee. With the victory, Diep earned an automatic berth into the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y. The event runs from Nov. 8-11 and invites 32 of the top singles players from all levels of college tennis to play in the tournament.
“I think it's always important to try and back up a good performance with another one, so it's not just an anomaly but it's something that you can really build confidence in,” said head coach Bryan Shelton. “When you have a good week, or you have a good event, or you have a big win, you kind of want to validate that. You want to come back the next week and have success again.
“For Flo, it's something that's real. He's certainly playing better, he's playing smarter, he's doing things the right way on the court, and he's getting the results too. Sometimes you might do those things and might not get the result, and that's the frustrating part sometimes in athletics and life. You can do everything right and lose. It's nice when you're doing it right and you have success and build that confidence a little bit quicker.”
Complete results and the entire draw can be found on the event's official site.
