Week 7: Men’s Tennis Athletes of the Week

Participant of the Week: Sophomore Ben Shelton went an undefeated 4-0 over the weekend, serving to the Gators defeat two top-10 opponents on the street in No. 8 Georgia and No. 1 Tennessee. In opposition to the Bulldogs, Shelton and teammate Sam Riffice took on the No. 55 pairing of Tristan McCormick and Hamish Stewart at courtroom one, knocking the duo off with a decisive 6-2 rating. This win additionally helped the Gators accumulate the doubles level in opposition to Georgia. At one singles in the identical match, Shelton confronted a tricky out in No. 19 Stewart, however was capable of pull out one other ranked win with a rating of 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, to clinch the match, 4-0, for Florida. Two days later in Knoxville, Tenn., the Gainesville native picked up a pair extra ranked victories. First, the Shelton/Riffice duo clinched the doubles level in opposition to the No. 1 staff within the nation with a win over No. 16 Emile Hudd and Shunsuke Mitsui, 6-4, at courtroom one. Then, the sophomore had one other tall process forward with a matchup in opposition to No. 18 Adam Walton at one singles. The Gator would win in three robust units, 6-3, 1-6, 6-1, to place Florida up 3-1 over UT. As well as, all 4 of his wins got here in opposition to ranked opponents, whereas three of these have been in opposition to opponents ranked within the top-20. Shelton has a 21-3 general file in singles with 13 ranked singles wins on the season. He’s additionally 10-2 in twin match play with an ideal 4-0 singles file at courtroom one and within the convention.

Freshman of the Week: Texas A&M’s Giulio Perego went 4-1 on the week in singles, narrowly dropping a 3rd set tremendous tiebreaker to No. 11 JJ Tracy of No. 2 Ohio State. He raced by means of his match in opposition to Jeremie Casabon, securing the second level of the match in opposition to the Commodores en path to a 5-2 win. The victory moved the Aggies to 2-0 in SEC play. He additionally topped Gregor Ramskogler of Mississippi State in straight units to assist the Aggies enhance to 3-0 in SEC matches. Perego improved to 5-0 on courtroom 5.