Friday, February 17
Chicago, IL / XS Tennis Village
1 PM
Florida Gators
vs
Kentucky
Will Grant is one of three Gators ranked in the Top-100 of the ITA Singles Rankings.
No. 16 Gators Travel to Chicago for ITA National Team Indoor Championship
Thursday, February 16, 2023 | Men's Tennis
Florida will face SEC-foe No. 2 Kentucky in the first round on Friday at 1 p.m. ET.
CHICAGO – The No. 16 Florida men's tennis team heads to Chicago to compete in the 2023 ITA National Team Indoor Championship and takes on the No. 2 Kentucky Wildcats in the first round on Friday at the XS Tennis Village.
First serve is slated for 1 p.m. ET and will be broadcasted by Cracked Racquets to provide on-site commentary. A TrackTennis live stream, as well as Tennis-Ticker live scoring, will be available for every match at the 2023 Division I Men's Indoor Championship.
Florida (4-3, 0-0 SEC) and Kentucky (10-0, 0-0 SEC) are facing each other for the 68th time in program history and for the first time at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. The Gators hold the 52-15 series advantage and are 9-1 under Bryan Shelton.
UF advanced to the 2023 ITA National Team Indoor Championship after topping USF and Mississippi State during ITA Kickoff Weekend in Gainesville, while Kentucky beat Liberty and Notre Dame in Lexington to earn their bid.
It will be Florida's 12th time competing at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in the past 17 years. Since 2007, Florida holds a 13-20 overall record and is 4-3 against SEC opponents at the tournament.
Hosted by the University of Illinois, this year's field includes all of the Top-13 teams in the ITA's Feb. 8 Team Rankings. Across all conferences, the SEC leads the way with five representatives at the tournament. Florida comes in well prepared for the strong field as one of seven teams in the Top-25 that has played four Top-20 teams to this point in the season.
As a single-elimination tournament, teams will play one match each day with the Championship Match being played on Monday, Feb. 20. However, all teams are guaranteed to play at least three matches over the week through either the main or consolation draw.
The Gators will look to get back on track this weekend after dropping their last two matches against No. 7 USC and No. 16 Stanford during the SEC/Pac-12 Challenge following the rivalry win over No. 12 Florida State at College MatchDay.
For Jonah Braswell's play against those three-ranked opponents, he earned SEC Freshman of the Week on Feb. 8. Braswell is now ranked No. 48 in the ITA Rankings, which makes him the seventh highest ranked freshman in the country. Additionally, Florida is one of seven teams in the country with three ranked singles players and two ranked doubles pairs. Will Grant notably earned the first ITA Singles Ranking of his career at No. 94.
GATORS IN THE RANKINGS
Doubles
No. 15 Tanapatt Nirundorn/Togan Tokac
No. 52 Jonah Braswell/Lukas Greif
Singles
No. 48 Jonah Braswell
No. 94 Will Grant
No. 95 Nate Bonetto
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
Kentucky is one of three undefeated ranked teams in the country and hold their highest ever ITA ranking in program history at No. 2. On Feb. 3, they beat then-No. 1 Virginia on the road, 4-3, and took down No. 23 Louisville, 4-3, for their second ranked-win of the season on Feb. 10. In the Wildcats past two wins over Louisville and Duke, their singles lineup consisted of five ranked players, but dropped the doubles point in both matches.
WILDCATS IN THE RANKINGS
Singles
No. 16 Joshua Lapadat
No. 45 Liam Draxl
No. 57 Charlelie Cosnet
No. 66 Alafia Ayeni
No. 115 Taha Baadi
FOLLOW THE GATORS
SOCIAL: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
First serve is slated for 1 p.m. ET and will be broadcasted by Cracked Racquets to provide on-site commentary. A TrackTennis live stream, as well as Tennis-Ticker live scoring, will be available for every match at the 2023 Division I Men's Indoor Championship.
Florida (4-3, 0-0 SEC) and Kentucky (10-0, 0-0 SEC) are facing each other for the 68th time in program history and for the first time at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. The Gators hold the 52-15 series advantage and are 9-1 under Bryan Shelton.
UF advanced to the 2023 ITA National Team Indoor Championship after topping USF and Mississippi State during ITA Kickoff Weekend in Gainesville, while Kentucky beat Liberty and Notre Dame in Lexington to earn their bid.
It will be Florida's 12th time competing at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in the past 17 years. Since 2007, Florida holds a 13-20 overall record and is 4-3 against SEC opponents at the tournament.
Hosted by the University of Illinois, this year's field includes all of the Top-13 teams in the ITA's Feb. 8 Team Rankings. Across all conferences, the SEC leads the way with five representatives at the tournament. Florida comes in well prepared for the strong field as one of seven teams in the Top-25 that has played four Top-20 teams to this point in the season.
As a single-elimination tournament, teams will play one match each day with the Championship Match being played on Monday, Feb. 20. However, all teams are guaranteed to play at least three matches over the week through either the main or consolation draw.
The Gators will look to get back on track this weekend after dropping their last two matches against No. 7 USC and No. 16 Stanford during the SEC/Pac-12 Challenge following the rivalry win over No. 12 Florida State at College MatchDay.
For Jonah Braswell's play against those three-ranked opponents, he earned SEC Freshman of the Week on Feb. 8. Braswell is now ranked No. 48 in the ITA Rankings, which makes him the seventh highest ranked freshman in the country. Additionally, Florida is one of seven teams in the country with three ranked singles players and two ranked doubles pairs. Will Grant notably earned the first ITA Singles Ranking of his career at No. 94.
GATORS IN THE RANKINGS
Doubles
No. 15 Tanapatt Nirundorn/Togan Tokac
No. 52 Jonah Braswell/Lukas Greif
Singles
No. 48 Jonah Braswell
No. 94 Will Grant
No. 95 Nate Bonetto
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
Kentucky is one of three undefeated ranked teams in the country and hold their highest ever ITA ranking in program history at No. 2. On Feb. 3, they beat then-No. 1 Virginia on the road, 4-3, and took down No. 23 Louisville, 4-3, for their second ranked-win of the season on Feb. 10. In the Wildcats past two wins over Louisville and Duke, their singles lineup consisted of five ranked players, but dropped the doubles point in both matches.
WILDCATS IN THE RANKINGS
Singles
No. 16 Joshua Lapadat
No. 45 Liam Draxl
No. 57 Charlelie Cosnet
No. 66 Alafia Ayeni
No. 115 Taha Baadi
FOLLOW THE GATORS
SOCIAL: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
Players Mentioned
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