No. 18 men’s tennis bows out of SEC Championship with loss to No. 19 Florida

Box Score
No. 18 men’s tennis bows out of SEC Championship with loss to No. 19 FloridaNo. 18 men’s tennis bows out of SEC Championship with loss to No. 19 Florida
David Gray/Auburn Tigers

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – No. 18 Auburn dropped its second-round match in the SEC men’s tennis championship on Thursday evening to No. 19 Florida 4-2 at the Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station.

Florida struck first in doubles, claiming a 6-1 win at the No. 2 position. On the top doubles court, Auburn’s Billy and Freddy Blaydes jumped out to a 3-1 lead over Florida’s Henry Jefferson and Tanapatt Nirundorn and went on to defeat the ninth-ranked doubles team 6-4.

At the No. 3 position, Auburn’s Jake Kennedy and Hamza Nasridinov took an early lead over Florida’s Lorenzo Claverie and Kevin Edengren before the Florida pair came back to take a 5-4 lead. Kennedy and Nasridinov took the lead again to claim the 7-5 comeback victory and clinch the doubles point for the Tigers.

Florida then took the momentum back in singles, claiming the first set on four courts. Alan Bojarski and Freddy Blaydes each claimed the opening set in their respective matches for Auburn.

The Gators tied the match with a straight-set victory at the No. 6 position. Billy Blaydes came back from trailing 4-2 in the second set to Claverie to force a tiebreaker, but Claverie prevailed in the breaker to win 6-3, 7-6 (1) and give the Gators a 2-1 lead.

At the No. 4 position, Florida’s Pablo Perez Ramos came back from dropping his first set to Bojarski to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 and extend Florida’s lead to 3-1.

Auburn began to show life later in the match, with Nasridinov and Heng forcing a third set in their respective matches while Freddy Blaydes’ match also reached a third set.

Heng, who was named SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year prior to the match, came back from an opening-set loss to Jeremy Jin to claim the second set 6-4. In the decisive third set, Heng claimed two early breaks to take a 4-1 lead before Jin came back to tie the set at four. Heng then won the next two games to win the match 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 and narrow Florida’s lead to 3-2.

After splitting the first two sets at the No. 5 singles position, Freddy Blaydes and Jefferson stayed tight in the third set. Blaydes came back from an early 2-0 deficit to tie the set at three, then both sides traded games to force a tiebreaker. Jefferson then won the tiebreaker 7-2 to seal the victory for Florida.

The loss ends Auburn’s run at the championship and drops its overall record to 16-10 this season. The Tigers will now await their placement in the NCAA championship during the NCAA men’s tennis championship selection show on April 27 at 4 p.m. CT. The show will be streamed live on NCAA.com.

 

#19 Florida 4, #18 Auburn 2

Singles Results:

  1. #22 Hamza Nasridinov (AUB) vs. #95 Adhithya Ganesan (UF) 4-6, 7-6 (11-9), 3-4, unfinished
  2. Lorenzo Claverie (UF) def. #76 Billy Blaydes (AUB) 6-3, 7-6 (7-1)
  3. Nicholas Heng (AUB) def. #102 Jeremy Jin (UF) 2-6, 6-4, 6-4
  4. #62 Pablo Perez Ramos (UF) def. Alan Bojarski (AUB) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
  5. #63 Henry Jefferson (UF) def. Freddy Blaydes (AUB) 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2)
  6. Kevin Edengren (UF) def. Manel Lazaro (AUB) 6-3, 6-2

Doubles Results:

  1. #16 Billy Blaydes/Freddy Blaydes (AUB) def. #9 Henry Jefferson/Tanapatt Nirundorn (UF) 6-4
  2. Adhithya Ganesan/Pablo Perez Ramos (UF) def. Nicholas Heng/Alan Bojarski (AUB) 6-1
  3. Jake Kennedy/Hamza Nasridinov (AUB) def. Lorenzo Claverie/Kevin Edengren (UF) 7-5

 

Time of match: 3:36 Order of finish: Doubles: 2,1,3; Singles: 6,2,4,3,5