Saturday, January 24
New York, NY
3 p.m.
Florida Gators
4
vs
2
Columbia - Championship
Gators Upset No. 13 Columbia 4-2 to Qualify for ITA National Indoors
Saturday, January 24, 2026 | Men's Tennis
Florida takes down the No. 13 Columbia in singles to earn the win and advance to ITA National Indoor Championships.
New York, N.Y. – Florida Men's Tennis had a weekend of upsets after defeating the No. 13 Columbia in the ITA Kickoff Weekend Championship match and moved to a record of 5-1 over the Lions. With this win, the Gators advance to the ITA National Indoor Championships for the first time since 2023.
The Gators dropped their first doubles point of the season to the Lions after No. 6 ranked pairing of Henry Jefferson and Tanapatt Nirundorn fell to Nicolas Kotzen and Andrew Ena from Columbia on court one and Lorenzo Claverie and Andreas Timini fell to No. 37 ranked Thanaphat Boosarawongse/Aditya Govila on court three.
After a rocky start with doubles, the Gators fought back hard in their singles competition. The Adhithya Ganesan defeated No. 52 ranked Nicolas Kotzen on court one, Pablo Perez Ramos defeated Abhishek Thorat on court four and Nirundorn took down Aditya Govila on court five to earn a 3-1 lead over the Lions. Claverie fell to No. 65 ranked Sachin Palta on court two. For the second day in a row, freshman Timini sealed the victory for the Gators on court six after a three-set win over Jordan Chang.
Straight from Coach Steinberg:
On the matches played over the weekend against No. 23 Kentucky and No. 13 Columbia…
"It was definitely out best moment since I've arrived in Gainesville for sure. Not only the wins, but the fight and the spirit the guys played with. It just meant so much to them, and to get the University of Florida back with the best of the national indoors, where we belong. Not a lot of words can express how important that is for us and also how happy I am to see these guys getting a chance to play in a national event like that with the best in the country."
On how it felt seeing freshman Andreas Timini clinch the win for the Gators against No. 13 Columbia…
"Yeah, that was special seeing Andreas, a freshman, never been in that situation and again playing with just an incredible spirit and energy. You could tell he loved every second of it, the crowd was all over him and he embraced it. I've seen a lot of freshmen come in and they shy away from that and it takes them a while to get to college tennis, but he embraced it and it helped his tennis and it helped everybody to be honest. He just had that youthful enthusiasm that was really awesome to watch and feel, so happy for him. He was struggling with his tennis a bit in the fall and a little bit when he got back. I've seen it in practice he's coming along and he had a great weekend that's for sure."
On his message to the team heading into singles after falling short for the doubles point…
"I told them to take a deep breath and everyone relax. If we're going to be a great team, we're not going to win every doubles point all year and we're going to lose doubles points on the road and we're going to have to learn how to respond in the right way. The message was, the first 20 minutes of the singles will tell everything, and then I thought we did a good job on most of the courts. We got some leads and up breaks on a couple courts which helped a lot. But I think it was really about not panicking because at that point we kind of felt we threw that doubles point away. Columbia played really well to their credit, they really came after us. But just take a step back and relax, and hey, it's going to be a long night and that's how we kind of looked at it."
Results
Doubles
Singles
Up Next
With the Gators win, the team will compete in the ITA National Indoor Championships taking place in Texas from Feb. 13-17. Prior to that, the Gators find themselves back at home against No. 20 Florida State on Jan. 30 and will travel to play No. 12 UCF on Feb. 1.
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The Gators dropped their first doubles point of the season to the Lions after No. 6 ranked pairing of Henry Jefferson and Tanapatt Nirundorn fell to Nicolas Kotzen and Andrew Ena from Columbia on court one and Lorenzo Claverie and Andreas Timini fell to No. 37 ranked Thanaphat Boosarawongse/Aditya Govila on court three.
After a rocky start with doubles, the Gators fought back hard in their singles competition. The Adhithya Ganesan defeated No. 52 ranked Nicolas Kotzen on court one, Pablo Perez Ramos defeated Abhishek Thorat on court four and Nirundorn took down Aditya Govila on court five to earn a 3-1 lead over the Lions. Claverie fell to No. 65 ranked Sachin Palta on court two. For the second day in a row, freshman Timini sealed the victory for the Gators on court six after a three-set win over Jordan Chang.
Straight from Coach Steinberg:
On the matches played over the weekend against No. 23 Kentucky and No. 13 Columbia…
"It was definitely out best moment since I've arrived in Gainesville for sure. Not only the wins, but the fight and the spirit the guys played with. It just meant so much to them, and to get the University of Florida back with the best of the national indoors, where we belong. Not a lot of words can express how important that is for us and also how happy I am to see these guys getting a chance to play in a national event like that with the best in the country."
On how it felt seeing freshman Andreas Timini clinch the win for the Gators against No. 13 Columbia…
"Yeah, that was special seeing Andreas, a freshman, never been in that situation and again playing with just an incredible spirit and energy. You could tell he loved every second of it, the crowd was all over him and he embraced it. I've seen a lot of freshmen come in and they shy away from that and it takes them a while to get to college tennis, but he embraced it and it helped his tennis and it helped everybody to be honest. He just had that youthful enthusiasm that was really awesome to watch and feel, so happy for him. He was struggling with his tennis a bit in the fall and a little bit when he got back. I've seen it in practice he's coming along and he had a great weekend that's for sure."
On his message to the team heading into singles after falling short for the doubles point…
"I told them to take a deep breath and everyone relax. If we're going to be a great team, we're not going to win every doubles point all year and we're going to lose doubles points on the road and we're going to have to learn how to respond in the right way. The message was, the first 20 minutes of the singles will tell everything, and then I thought we did a good job on most of the courts. We got some leads and up breaks on a couple courts which helped a lot. But I think it was really about not panicking because at that point we kind of felt we threw that doubles point away. Columbia played really well to their credit, they really came after us. But just take a step back and relax, and hey, it's going to be a long night and that's how we kind of looked at it."
Results
Doubles
- Court 1: Nicolas Kotzen/Andrew Ena (COL) def. No. 6 Henry Jefferson/Tanapatt Nirundorn (UF) (6-3)
- Court 2: Pablo Perez Ramos/Adhithya Ganesan (UF) vs. Sachin Palta/Jordan Chang (COL) (UNFINISHED: 5-4)
- Court 3: No. 37 Thanaphat Boosarawongse/Aditya Govila (COL) def. Lorenzo Claverie/Andreas Timini (UF) (6-4)
Singles
- Court 1: Adhithya Ganesan (UF) def. No. 52 Nicolas Kotzen (COL) (6-3, 6-4)
- Court 2: No. 65 Sachin Palta (COL) def. Lorenzo Claverie (UF) (6-2, 6-4)
- Court 3: No. 115 Henry Jefferson (UF) vs. Thanaphat Boosarawongse (COL) (UNFINISHED: 4-6, 6-4, 2-2)
- Court 4: Pablo Perez Ramos (UF) def. Abhishek Thorat (COL) (6-2, 6-4)
- Court 5: Tanapatt Nirundorn (UF) def. Aditya Govila (COL) (7-5, 6-3)
- Court 6: Andreas Timini (UF) vs. Jordan Chang (COL) (6-3, 3-6, 6-2)
Up Next
With the Gators win, the team will compete in the ITA National Indoor Championships taking place in Texas from Feb. 13-17. Prior to that, the Gators find themselves back at home against No. 20 Florida State on Jan. 30 and will travel to play No. 12 UCF on Feb. 1.
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SOCIAL: X | Facebook | Instagram
Players Mentioned
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