Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The No. 16 Florida men's tennis team hosts ITA Kickoff Weekend for the second consecutive year at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex and welcomes SEC-foe (RV) Mississippi State, SMU and in-state foe USF to Gainesville Friday and Saturday, Jan. 27-28.
 
The event begins at 11 a.m. Friday with (RV) Mississippi State against SMU followed by Florida versus USF at 2 p.m. On Saturday, the consolation match will start at 10 a.m. and the championship is set for 2 p.m.
 
Florida returns to Gainesville after a road trip to UCF and earned its first win of the season 6-1. The doubles pairs of No. 10 Tanapatt Nirundorn/Togan Tokac and No. 43 Jonah Braswell/Lukas Greif quickly secured the doubles point with their first dual doubles wins of the season. In singles, Axel Nefve, Nirundorn and Tokac all picked up their first dual singles victories for the Orange & Blue, while Greif got his first win at No. 4 of his career.
 
Head coach Bryan Shelton enters the weekend two wins away from 200 at the helm for Florida men's tennis. Shelton would join former head coaches Ian Duvenhage (221) and Andy Jackson (209) to have reached the 200-win milestone.
 
The Gators look to win two matches this weekend and qualify for the 48^th Annual ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Chicago from Feb. 17-20.
 
Cracked Racquets will be providing a centralized CrossCourt Cast experience for the 2023 ITA Kickoff Weekend. The Cracked Racquets stream on YouTube will incorporate every match happening across 13 men's and women's sites. This live stream will focus on broadcasting the most exciting moments of each match from the sites they are covering.
 
GATORS IN THE RANKINGS
Doubles
No. 10 Tanapatt Nirundorn/Togan Tokac
No. 37 Nate Bonetto/Axel Nefve
No. 43 Jonah Braswell/Lukas Greif
 
Singles
No. 51 Nate Bonetto
No. 93 Jonah Braswell
 
PROMOTIONS
Friday: First 250 fans will receive a men's tennis bottle koozie at Florida's match
Saturday: First 50 students will receive a Florida tennis seat cushion at Florida's match
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Florida's first opponent, USF, is 3-3, and is riding a three-game winning streak heading into ITA Kickoff. The Bulls are led by No. 67 Alvin Tudorica and No. 69 Davide Tortora at the top of their singles lineup. Florida owns the overall series 52-3 over USF with the last meeting coming in the second round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament. During the fall, Florida went 1-2 in singles play against USF during ITA Regionals in Tallahassee. Braswell defeated Bruno Oliveira, 6-1, 6-2, in the first round. While Greif lost to Erik Grevelius in the first round 7-6 (5), 6-4 and Will Grant fell to Alvin Tudorica, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 in the second round.
 
Fellow SEC school Mississippi State, comes in with a 4-0 record. The Bulldogs notably took down Middle Tennessee, who received votes in the Jan. 25 ITA Top 25 Coaches Poll, by a score of 5-2. Braswell faced two members of Mississippi State during the Fall and defeated both in straight sets at the ITA All-American Championships. The freshman beat Gregor Ramskogler, 6-3, 6-2 in prequalifying and Nemanja Malesevic, 6-2, 6-4 in qualifying.
 
SMU holds a 5-1 record with its only loss coming on the road at No. 3 TCU by a score of 5-0. The Mustangs' five wins have come over Prairie View A&M twice, Denver, UTRGV and UT Tyler. SMU lost one point compared to 34 points won during its five wins.
 
OPPONENTS IN THE RANKINGS
Doubles
No. 42 Carles Hernandez/Nemanja Malesevic (Mississippi State)
 
Singles
No. 67 Alvin Tudorica (USF)
No. 69 Davide Tortora (USF)
No. 107 Petar Jovanovic (Mississippi State)
 
ATTENDANCE POLICY/PARKING
Admission into the event is free. Parking will be available in the green lot at the tennis complex.
 
Access to the tennis building or the court is not permitted for any patrons.