Bulls Fall to No. 9 Gators in Season Opener

Sunday, January 17

Gainesville, Fla.

1:00 PM

University of South Florida

Florida

Photo by: PENN_TP

Bulls Fall to No. 9 Gators in Season Opener

January 17, 2021 | Men's Tennis

Box Score

GAINESVILLE, Fla., Jan. 17, 2021 – University of South Florida men's tennis fell to a formidable No. 9 Florida in its first match of the season on Sunday. The Bulls captured the doubles point but fell in singles in the 6-1 loss.

The doubles set featured a strong performance in a nationally-ranked battle, with No. 21 Jakub Wojcik (Delray Beach, FL) and Rithvik Bollipalli (Hyderabad, India) defeating No. 45 Duarte Vale and Sam Riffice, 6-2. No. 38 Chase Ferguson (Melbourne, Australia) and Pierre Luquet (Draguignan, France) clinched the point with a 6-4 victory over Ben Shelton and Johannes Ingildsen.

Despite the doubles victories, the Bulls ultimately fell 1-6 after a Gators sweep on singles courts. Florida, who has not lost a singles contest in its two matches this season, continued its undefeated season when No. 68 Blaise Bicknell defeated Alvin Tudorica (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) in straight sets, 2-6, 6-7, to clinch the match for the Gators.

Quotable
Head coach Ashley Fisher on today's loss…
"Full credit to Florida for outplaying us across the board in singles. We played an outstanding doubles point but didn't do a good enough job as coaches of encouraging our guys to play freely. We have a lot of film to learn from and will get back to work on Tuesday preparing for Clemson and Auburn."

Up Next
The Bulls travel across state lines to face the Clemson Tigers at the Hoak Sloan Tennis Center on Saturday, Jan. 23, at 2 p.m. The team then faces off against Auburn, also in Clemson, S.C. on Jan. 24 at 11 a.m.

About Men's Tennis
Be sure to follow USF men's tennis on social media (Twitter / Facebook / Instagram) and visit GoUSFBulls.com for the most up-to-date information. Head coach Ashley Fisher will begin his fifth year at the helm of the program for the 2021 season.