Florida Claims Nine Spots In ITA's End of the Year Rankings

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Another fall tennis season is in the books as the Florida Gators men's tennis closed out an impressive first half of the year with 68 singles wins and 23 doubles wins, while notching 20 ranked victories between both singles and doubles play. After a pretty dominant fall, the Gators claimed nine spots in ITA's end of the year rankings – five in singles and four in doubles.

Moving up 84 spots from the preseason rankings to the No. 2 spot is sophomore Ben Shelton after he put together an 11-1 fall record and winning the ITA All-American Championships. At the All-Americans, Shelton compiled a perfect 12-0 sets record and defeated six ranked opponents in a row, including the new No. 1 player, August Holmgren of San Diego, to win the singles title for the first time in program history. In addition, Shelton beat eight ranked players in the fall and ranked second in the team in wins.

Graduate Mattias Siimar ended the fall No. 61 – moving up from No. 103 in the preseason rankings. Siimar went 9-3 with a ranked victory against No. 66 Joao Ceolin of UTSA. He leads the team with 20 total wins in the fall (nine singles, 11 doubles).

Freshman Nate Bonetto made his ITA rankings debut checking in at No. 79 after putting together a 13-3 record with a perfect 3-0 record over ranked opponents. Bonetto advanced the furthest among the team at the ITA Southeast Reginal tournament after getting to the quarterfinals. He also went undefeated in singles play in two tournaments during the fall and collected 19 total wins (13 singles, six doubles).

Senior Andy Andrade comes in at No. 107 in the final rankings, posting a 9-4 singles record. Andrade was one of four Gators to go undefeated in singles play at the Gator Fall Invite as he went 3-0 with a huge win over No. 16-ranked Connor Thomson of South Carolina.

Rounding out the singles rankings is senior Josh Goodger, who is No. 111. Goodger tallied six singles victories including a ranked win against No. 23 Hamish Stewart of Georgia at the ITA Southeast Regional tournament. He made it to the consolation singles semifinals at regionals and was one of three Gators to win at least three singles matches at the same tournament.

Florida also had four doubles tandems find a spot in ITA's final fall rankings, starting with No. 14 Abedallah Shelbayh and Mattias Siimar. The duo, who ranked 57^th in the preseason, posted the most wins among doubles teams in the fall with a 7-3 record. The pairing also defeated two ranked teams in the No. 3-duo from UCF, Trey Hilderbrand and Bogdan Pavel, and the No. 49 NC State pair, Yannai Barkai and Braden Shick. The Shelbayh/Siimar duo also advanced to the main doubles draw of the ITA All-American Championships after winning three matches in qualifying. This is one of two doubles teams that Siimar was ranked with.

Andrade found himself also ranked on two different doubles teams – tied at No. 39 with senior Duarte Vale and No. 51 with Siimar. The Andrade/Vale duo paired up for one tournament in the fall, collecting a win over Harvard's Brian Shi and Daniel Milavsky, 6-4. Andrade and Siimar played together for the first time at the ITA Southeast Regional tournament and made it all the way to the semifinals of the main draw with victories over teams from USF and UCF, before falling in a super tiebreak to the No. 8-team in the country from Georgia Tech. This is both Andrade and Siimar's second ranked doubles team in ITA's final fall season rankings.

The last pair to find themselves ranked after an impressive fall season are Bonetto and senior Lukas Greif. The duo paired together for the final fall tournament of the season at Clemson and totaled two doubles wins. They first defeated Inigo Torre Martin and Matisse Bobichon of VCU, 6-3, then beat Georgia's Philip Henning and Hamish Stewart, 6-4, at the Clemson Hidden Duals.

For the full ITA release and rankings, click here.

ITA End of the Year Rankings:

Name	Final Ranking
Ben Shelton	2
Mattias Siimar	61
Nate Bonetto	79
Andy Andrade	107
Josh Goodger	111
Abedallah Shelbayh/Mattias Siimar	14
Andy Andrade/Duarte Vale	T-39
Andy Andrade/Mattias Siimar	51
Nate Bonetto/Lukas Greif	55

ITA Preseason Rankings:

Name	Preseason Ranking
Sam Riffice	2
Duarte Vale	4
Andy Andrade	14
Josh Goodger	59
Ben Shelton	86
Mattias Siimar	103
Lukas Greif	111
Sam Riffice/Ben Shelton	26
Abedallah Shelbayh/Mattias Siimar	57