No. 18 Florida lost in heartbreaking fashion against arch-rival Florida State, 4-3. The Seminoles jumped out to an early start, grabbing the doubles point and two of the first three singles points. However, the Gators battled back. They took the next two singles matches to even the score at three. Gabor Hornung was the hero for the Seminoles. He won his match against Andreas Timini 2-1 in a third set tiebreaker to give the Seminoles the victory. The Gators have lost three straight against the Seminoles.
Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex was nearly filled to capacity with fans of both schools arriving to watch a matchup between the rivals.
Doubles
The doubles matches were back and forth, but after seven games were played on each court, the Seminoles held a 4-3 advantage on all three. The Gators responded by evening the scores at four apiece on all three. The court one pair of Henry Jefferson and Tanapatt Nirundorn evened the set within seconds of the court two pair of Adhithya Ganesan and Pablo Perez Ramos evening theirs, sending the packed crowd into a frenzy. After a game nine win by Jefferson and Nirundorn put them ahead 5-4, they began to hype up the crowd even more.
The joy did not last long. Shortly afterwards, the Florida State duo Hornung and Oren Ezerzer closed out their set against Timini and Lorenzo Claverie on court three. Ganesan and Perez Ramos responded by taking their set, meaning the doubles point would be decided by the set on court one.
The set was tied 5-5 through the first 10 games. The Florida duo served in game 11, but couldn’t convert it into a victory as Luis Felipe Miguel and Erik Schiessl broke their serve to go up 6-5. Felipe Miguel and Schiessl finished the set the next game, but it didn’t come without controversy. When they had match point, the chair umpire deemed a shot in that Jefferson, Nirundorn, and many in the crowd believed was out.
“We didn’t talk about that,” said Gators coach Andy Steinberg, “It’s college tennis, it’s gonna happen. There’s always calls against you. When we got to singles, we let it go.”
Singles
The first set of singles was not kind to the Gators. Timini, Claverie, and Perez Ramos were all dispatched quickly. All three lost their first set 6-1. Nirundorn didn’t fare much better. He lost his set 6-2 to Mohammad Alkotop.
However, it wasn’t all bad for the Gators. Jefferson made quick work of Schiessl in a 6-3 victory. Ganesan came back from a 6-5 deficit and forced a tiebreaker against Corey Craig. After a back-and-forth affair, Ganesan took the tiebreaker and a 7-6 victory in the set.
After the end of the first sets, many fans left the arena knowing that it would take a significant comeback by the Gators to secure a victory.
Even though the situation was dire for the Gators, they did not give up. Timini and Perez Ramos stormed back and took their second sets, evening the matches at 1-1.
“Early in the second sets, they both got a break,” said coach Steinberg, “Pablo (Perez Ramos) needed to mix up his game more and use his drop shot more. He was trying to hit through the guy and he was making a lot of errors. When he started to actually play the game of tennis, it got a lot better.”
“Andreas (Timini) started to play deeper in the court and started to make the guy work. You could see the guy was cramping. He made him play a million balls.”
Jefferson finished off Schiessl to win his match in straight sets and get the Gators their first point.
However, the second set wasn’t all good for the Gators. Nirundorn split the first four games of his set, but lost the next four to lose in straight sets against Alkotop. Similarly, Claverie split his first six games of the set, but lost the next three. This gave Florida State a 3-1 advantage, meaning that they would only have to win one of the remaining matches to upset their rivals.
That point did not come from Craig, as Ganesan won a back-and-forth set 6-4 to cut the Gators’ deficit in half. After Ganesan’s victory, most of the fans still in attendance moved to the right side of the bleachers to watch Perez Ramos’ and Timini’s third sets on courts four and six, the two courts furthest to the right.
Perez Ramos maintained control over his set. He jumped out to an early 2-0 lead over Azariah Rusher and kept the lead throughout the match. Perez Ramos broke Rusher’s serve in the set’s ninth game to close out the 6-3 victory. This evened the score at 3-3. The fate of the contest came down to Timini vs. Hornung.
Timini vs. Hornung
Timini fell behind 2-0 to open up the set, but quickly responded by evening the score at 2-2. The pair then went back and forth breaking the other’s serve until Hornung stopped the cycle in game nine to take a 5-4 lead over Timini. Timini was able to respond once again, tying the affair at 5-5 to set up a crucial game 11. Timini took a 40-30 lead with a chance to take a 6-5 lead, when Hornung sent a shot past Timini to tie the game at 40.
On the game tying shot, Hornung fell to the ground with an apparent injury. After the team doctor checked him out, Hornung got back onto his feet and into the match. Timini, unfazed by the incident, took the next point and was in a great position to win the set. Game 12 came down to the wire. The score was tied at 40-40. If Timini took the point, he would win the contest for the Gators. If Hornung took the point, he would force a tiebreaker. The crowd was all on their feet and dead silent. Timini double faulted, sending the match to a tiebreaker for all the marbles.
Timini’s fate in the tiebreaker would be sealed by another costly double fault. Hornung took a 6-4 lead in the first-to-seven tiebreaker. Timini once again double faulted, giving the victory to Florida State.
The moment after his second serve landed out, Hornung’s teammates who were standing on the neighboring court swarmed him as they celebrated beating their biggest rival.
“It was an extremely tough loss for us,” said coach Steinberg, “After coming back like we did, it’s extremely disappointing.”
Steinberg added: “We didn’t play well tonight. To come back the way we did showed a lot of heart. There are a lot of positives in getting into a position to win. I didn’t think we played well enough to do that and all of a sudden I’m looking up at the scoreboard and we have a chance.”
Florida takes the court next on Sunday at No. 9 UCF at 10 a.m. The Gators have lost their last two matches against the Knights.
Category: Gators Tennis