Florida Gators

AUBURN, Ala. – The No. 24 Florida men's tennis team opens Southeastern Conference Tournament play Thursday, April 20 with a 4 p.m. ET first serve against the host No. 22 Auburn Tigers at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.
 
The Gators (13-12, 5-7 SEC) will be the No. 8 seed and face No. 9 seed Auburn (17-10, 5-7 SEC) for just the second time in tournament history. UF won the first meeting in 2010, 4-1 in Lexington, Ky.
 
During the regular season, Florida got the best of Auburn winning 6-1 in Gainesville on March 26, earning the doubles point and victories on five of six singles courts. Jonah Braswell, Will Grant and Lukas Greif won their matches in straight-sets, while Nate Bonetto and Axel Nefve came out on top in three-setters.
 
Dating back to 1948, the Gators and Tigers have faced off 64 times with Florida holding a 49-15 advantage in the all-time series. The Gators are on a nine-match winning streak against the Tigers and are 9-1 in the series under head coach Bryan Shelton.
 
AT THE SEC TOURNAMENT
Florida has previously played in the SEC Tournament at Auburn twice in program history (1998, 2009) and went 1-1 both times. Since the first SEC Tournament in 1990, the Gators have been crowned champions five separate times (1994, 2000, 2005, 2011, 2016, 2022). After beating LSU, Tennessee and Kentucky, respectively at the SEC Tournament last year, Florida became the conference champion in both the regular season and SEC Tournament for the third time in program history (2000, 2005, 2022).
 
BATTLE TESTED
Of the 25 matches on Florida's regular season schedule, 14 came against opponents ranked in the top-25 and eight versus the top-10. This is the most top-25 ranked opponents Florida has played in the regular season since exactly 20 years ago, when the 2003 team faced 15 top-25 opponents.
 
IT STARTS WITH DUBS
The Gators have won the doubles point in 18 of 25 matches this season and have a 12-6 record when jumping out to the 1-0 lead. UF is the only team in the SEC and one of four teams in the nation to boast two top-20 ranked doubles pairs. Grant/Nefve extended their winning streak to six matches, while tacking on their eighth and ninth ranked-victory of the spring, after beating then-No. 26 Alafia Ayeni/Taha Baadi from Kentucky and South Carolina's No. 1 Toby Samuel/Connor Thomson.
 
GATORS IN THE RANKINGS
Doubles
No. 4 Will Grant/Axel Nefve
No. 17 Tanapatt Nirundorn/Togan Tokac
 
Singles
No. 37 Axel Nefve
No. 86 Jonah Braswell
No. 95 Will Grant
 
SCOUTING THE TIGERS
Auburn enters the tournament on a three-match losing streak falling to Alabama, LSU and Texas A&M. However, the Tigers earned five SEC victories over Tennessee, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Arkansas. In dual play, Billy Blaydes, Raul Dobai and Tyler Stice are all tied with a team-high 13 victories with Stice playing exclusively in the top singles position.
 
TIGERS IN THE RANKINGS
Doubles
No. 31 Raul Dobai/Finn Murgett
No. 66 Jan Galka/Alejandro Moreno
 
Singles
No. 57 Tyler Stice
No. 115 Alejandro Moreno
 
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