New York, N.Y. – Florida defeated the No. 23 ranked Kentucky 4-2 in the opening round of the ITA Kickoff Weekend hosted by Columbia. The Gators are now 54-18 over the Wildcats and move to 2-0 on the season.

The Gators continued their success from last weekend on the doubles courts. The pairing of Pablo Perez Ramos and Adhithya Ganesan won court two for the Gators with a 6-1 victory over Charlelie Cosnet and Martin Breysach. Henry Jefferson and Tanapatt Nirundorn were defeated on court one by No. 69 Eli Stephenson and Jack Loutit, 6-3. This left the deciding match on court three with Lorenzo Claverie and Andreas Timini who won in a 7(8)-6(6) thriller match to earn the doubles point for the Gators.

In singles, victories on court four by Ramos and court one by Ganesan helped put the Gators up 3-0. However, Jefferson fell to No. 19 Stephenson on court three and Edengren fell to Weekes on court five making the score 3-2. Timini on court six sealed the victory for Florida after a hard fought three sets. Timini dropped the first set 4-6, but only dropped one game to finish the match 6-1, 6-0.

Results

Doubles

ORDER OF FINISH: 2, 1, 3

Singles

ORDER OF FINISH: 1, 3, 5, 4, 6

Up Next

The Gators will face the winner of the Columbia/Illinois match in the ITA Kickoff Weekend Championship match tomorrow at 3 p.m. EST. The winner of the championship match will earn a spot in the ITA National Indoor Championships taking place in Texas from Feb. 13-17.

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