Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 22 Florida men's tennis returns back to the Alfred A. Ring tennis Complex this weekend beginning with No. 55 Arkansas on Friday at 5 p.m. followed by No. 18 Auburn on Sunday at noon.
 
Friday night will be the 36^th meeting all-time between Florida (8-7, 3-2 SEC) and Arkansas (12-6, 0-4 SEC) with the Gators having won 33 of the last 35 matches and are 7-1 under Head Coach Bryan Shelton. In Gainesville, Florida has never lost a match to Arkansas and holds a perfect 15-0 record.
 
Heading into Sunday's match with Auburn (13-6, 2-3 SEC), Florida controls a 48-15 all-time advantage and have won the last eight matches against the Tigers. The Gators have not lost a match to Auburn in Gainesville since 2002.
 
Last week, the Gators went undefeated in conference play picking up two road wins at No. 30 Ole Miss and No. 61 Vanderbilt. Florida handed Ole Miss their first loss in the conference after winning the doubles point and securing singles victories on court two, three, five and six. The 4-3 triumph over Vanderbilt marked the first time this season Florida has dropped the doubles point and came back to win the match, as the Gators went on to win on court one, two, three and six.
 
PROMOTIONS
The first 50 fans in attendance for Friday's match will receive a Florida Tennis towel and the first 75 fans in attendance for Sunday's match will receive a Florida Tennis water bottle.
 
JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED
Lukas Greif earned his 100^th overall win, while also playing clincher for the Gators from court six in both matches against Ole Miss and Vanderbilt. The biggest clinching moment came with Vanderbilt having five courts available instead of the usual six for singles. Greif dropped just four points in the entire opening frame and sent Florida home with a victory beating Macsen Sisam, 6-0, 6-2.
 
ON THE CUSP
Graduate student Axel Nefve approaches the weekend sitting at 99 overall career dual wins (54 singles & 45 doubles). Exclusively playing at the top position in both doubles and singles, Nefve jumped from No. 103 to No. 70 in this week's ITA Singles Rankings and remained in the top-30 with partner Will Grant in doubles.
 
FRESHMAN FOCUS
In both victories this past week, Florida started three freshmen in the singles lineup with Jonah Braswell at three, Olek Orlikowski at four and Togan Tokac at five. The Gators had only implemented three freshmen twice before this season against No. 8 Texas (Jan. 15) and at UCF (Jan. 21). Thus far, Florida is one of four teams in the SEC to have utilized three freshmen in singles at-least twice during conference play.
 
GATORS IN THE RANKINGS
Doubles
No. 29 Will Grant/Axel Nefve
No. 33 Tanapatt Nirundorn/Togan Tokac
 
Singles
No. 70 Axel Nefve
No. 81 Will Grant
No. 97 Jonah Braswell
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Coming off a 5-2 loss at No. 57 UCF on Wednesday, Arkansas enters their next match in the Sunshine State on a five-match losing streak and 0-4 in the SEC after beginning the season 12-1 in non-conference play. Against UCF, Arkansas opened by winning the doubles point, but notched only one victory in singles from court six via Gerard Planelles. In the singles lineup, the Razorbacks return both Adrien Burdet and Melvin Manuel from Florida's 6-1 win in 2022, which notably included Nate Bonetto earning the first ranked victory in SEC play of his career.
 
After a 4-3 comeback victory over then-No. 13 Tennessee to start SEC play, Auburn appeared to stumble and lost four consecutive matches before sweeping then-No. 30 Ole Miss 4-0 on March 18. Against the Rebels, Auburn collected the doubles point and completed the win in straight-sets on court three, five and six. Before traveling to Gainesville, Auburn faces No. 4 South Carolina in Columbia on Friday. The Tigers bring back four members of their singles lineup in last season's 6-1 loss to the Gators, where Greif recorded a double-bagel on court six.
 
OPPONENTS IN THE RANKINGS
Doubles
No. 23 Raul Dobai/Finn Murgett (Auburn)
No. 65 Jan Galka/Alejandro Moreno (Auburn)
 
Singles
No. 107 Alejandro Moreno (Auburn)
No. 110 Tyler Stice (Auburn)
 
ATTENDANCE/PARKING
Admission into the event is free and parking restrictions for only the green lot next to the complex will be lifted for the matches.
 
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