The weekend is here and it was a fantastic Friday of tennis with the match of the day taking place in front of a national ESPN3 audience as Florida went into Tallahassee and pulled out a 4-2 win.
Florida State picked up the doubles point by winning at 1 and 3 but Florida came out swinging in singles taking 4 1st sets. After FSU extended the lead to 2-0 with a Cristian Gonzalez Mendez win at 5, Florida started finishing off courts 1 by 1 with Gordon Watson winning at 4 then Chase Perez-Blanco at 6. With the score tied at 2-2, each of the remaining matches went to a 3rd set and after Elliott Orkin closed out Michael Rinaldi at #3 to give Florida its first lead at 3-2 it appeared that Maxx Lipman would be the one to seal the victory. Lipman was serving up 4-2 in the 3rd but Benjamin Lock got the break, then held, then broke again and served for the match up 5-4 40-15. Lock hit a serve out wide in the deuce court that Lipman returned from outside the doubles alley and with the ball floating back towards the singles line Lock decided to let it go thinking it would fall out. The ball ended up landing right on the middle of the line and 2 points later Lipman had it back on serve. With that match into a 3rd set tiebreak over at #2 singles Florida’s Diego Hidalgo was serving for the match up 6-5 40-0. FSU’s Marco Nunez fought off 1 match point but on the next point he sliced a shot down the line and followed it in to the net and then watched as Hidalgo hit a forehand cross court to win it for Florida. Gators 4 Seminoles 2 FINAL
Florida recap
FSU recap
#14 Florida 4, #32 Florida State 2
Doubles competition
1. #24 Benjamin Lock/Marco Nunez (FS) def. #32 Diego Hidalgo/Gordon Watson (UF) 6-0
2. #49 Maxx Lipman/Elliott Orkin (UF) def. C. Gonzalez Mendez/Jose Gracia (FS) 6-2
3. Terrance Whitehurst/Terrell Whitehurst (FS) def. #43 Oliver Landert/Joshua Wardell (UF) 6-3
Singles competition
1. Benjamin Lock (FS) vs. #34 Maxx Lipman (UF) 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 6-6 (3-0), unfinished
2. #60 Diego Hidalgo (UF) def. #99 Marco Nunez (FS) 7-5, 6-7 (4-7), 7-5
3. #81 Elliott Orkin (UF) def. Michael Rinaldi (FS) 6-2, 4-6, 6-3
4. Gordon Watson (UF) def. Jose Gracia (FS) 6-4, 7-6 (7-4)
5. C. Gonzalez Mendez (FS) def. Oliver Landert (UF) 6-2, 6-4
6. Chase Perez-Blanco (UF) def. Terrell Whitehurst (FS) 7-5, 6-4
Match Notes:
Florida 5-2; National ranking #14
Florida State 7-2; National ranking #32
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (5,4,6,3,2)
T-3:29
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In Atlanta, Georgia Tech and Georgia renewed their annual rivalry and as expected it was much closer than the 71 spots between the 2 in last week’s rankings. Georgia Tech really jumped on Georgia in doubles breaking early on all 3 courts and cruised to 6-2 wins at 1 and 3. In singles Georgia would take 4 1st sets and close out 3 of those in straight sets. With Georgia leading 3-2 it would come down to a pair of 3rd sets at both #2 and #5 singles and while the Eubanks/Smith match at 2 would stay on serve, Georgia’s Nick Wood would jump out to an insurmountable 4-0 lead on 5. Tech’s Carlos Benito would get a game to make it 4-1 but Wood won the last 2 to clinch the win for the Bulldogs.
Georgia recap
Georgia Tech recap
#4 Georgia 4, #75 Georgia Tech 3
1. Carlos Benito/Eduardo Segura (GT) def. #16 Peter Oosterbaan/Ben Wagland (UGA) 6-2
2. Nathan Rakitt/Cole Fiegel (GT) vs. #34 Eric Diaz/Austin Smith (UGA) 5-3, unfinished
3. Michael Kay/Christopher Eubanks (GT) def. #53 Nathan Pasha/Wayne Montgomery (UGA) 6-2
Singles competition
1. #32 Wayne Montgomery (UGA) def. #49 Nathan Rakitt (GT) 6-3, 6-2
2. Christopher Eubanks (GT) def. #11 Austin Smith (UGA) 7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4)
3. #15 Nathan Pasha (UGA) def. Eduardo Segura (GT) 6-1, 7-5
4. Ben Wagland (UGA) def. Michael Kay (GT) 6-4, 6-4
5. #101 Nick Wood (UGA) def. Carlos Benito (GT) 6-2, 5-7, 6-1
6. Cole Fiegel (GT) def. Peter Oosterbaan (UGA) 6-3, 7-6 (7-1)
Match Notes:
Georgia 4-1; National ranking #4
Georgia Tech 5-1; National ranking #75
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (1,3,6,4,5,2)
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In Durham, Tennessee got off to a good start by taking the doubles point but after that it was all Duke as the Blue Devils gave Tennessee a pretty thorough beating at 2 through 5 spot winning all 4 of those in straight sets.
Duke recap
Tennessee recap
#6 Duke 5, #20 Tennessee 2
Doubles competition
1. #2 Hunter Reese/Mikelis Libietis (UT) def. Raphael Hemmeler/Nicolas Alvarez (DU) 6-1
2. Jason Tahir/Josh Levine (DU) def. Brandon Fickey/Luis Valero (UT) 6-4
3. Andrew Dromsky/Jack Schipanski (UT) def. Chris Mengel/Bruno Semenzato (DU) 6-4
Singles competition
1. #16 Mikelis Libietis (UT) def. #36 Jason Tahir (DU) 6-4, 6-3
2. #18 Nicolas Alvarez (DU) def. Hunter Reese (UT) 6-3, 6-2
3. #103 Raphael Hemmeler (DU) def. Jack Schipanski (UT) 6-2, 6-3
4. #112 Bruno Semenzato (DU) def. Luis Valero (UT) 6-4, 7-5
5. Chris Mengel (DU) def. Brandon Fickey (UT) 6-3, 6-1
6. Josh Levine (DU) def. Jess Jones (UT) 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-7)
Match Notes
Tennessee 4-3; National ranking #20
Duke 7-0; National ranking #6
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (2,5,1,3,4,6)
T-2:31 A-436
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In Norman, Oklahoma dropped the doubles point to South Florida but then took all 6 singles matches only dropping 2 sets along the way.
OU recap
USF recap
#2 Oklahoma 6, #25 USF 1
Doubles:
1: #38 Alvarez/Webb (OU) def. #44 Pramming/Roberts (USF), 6-3
2: Gozun/Kalyuzhnyy (USF) def. Harris/Papa (OU), 6-3
3: Cid/Gonzalez-Muniz (USF) def. Ghilea/Bragusi (OU), 7-6 (1)
Singles:
1: #20 Andrew Harris (OU) def. #19 Roberto Cid (USF), 6-7, 6-3, 6-4
2: #14 Axel Alvarez (OU) def. Sasha Gozun (USF), 7-5, 6-4
3: #33 Dane Webb (OU) def. Ignacio Gonzalez-Muniz (USF), 6-4, 6-2
4: Spencer Papa (OU) def. Oliver Pramming (USF), 6-4, 7-5
5: #50 Alex Ghilea (OU) def. Justin Roberts (USF), 6-0, 6-3
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