The Florida Gators men’s tennis team will be allowed to compete beginning Oct. 1st for the 2020-21 season, coming off of a season where it finished 9th in the final ITA Division I rankings before the season was suspended.
The Gators have 10 student-athletes on their men’s tennis team for the upcoming season. Meet the players who will wear orange and blue on the court this year.
Andy Andrade, Senior, Bradenton, Florida
A 2019 Second Team All-SEC and a member of the 2019 SEC Honor Roll, Andrade has recorded at least 24 singles wins in each of the last three seasons. He had a team-high eight-match singles win streak last spring. Andrade won his first singles draw last fall at the Dick Vitale Intercollegiate Classic.
Brian Berdusco, Senior, Bradenton, Florida
The 2018 ITA Southeast Region doubles champion. Berdusco has been in Gainesville for the past two seasons after competing at Pepperdine his freshman year. He and Johannes Ingildsen reached a high of No. 18 in doubles in Jan. 2020. Berdusco won the orange draw of the UVA Masters with Lukas Greif in Sept. 2018.
Blaise Bicknell, Sophomore, Miami, Florida
As a freshman last season, Bicknell finished fourth on the team with 19 singles victories, including an undefeated 7-0 in dual singles and a victory in his only SEC singles match. Bicknell was ranked as high as the nation’s No. 10 recruit as a high schooler according to the Tennis Recruiting Network and played three matches for the Jamaican national team in the 2020 Davis Cup.
Josh Goodger, Senior, Wallington, England
A transfer from the University of Tulsa, Goodger ranked third on the team in singles wins (21) and first in doubles wins (16) in his first season with the Gators last year. He went 3-1 in SEC Singles and 3-0 in SEC Doubles. He was a finalist in singles at the Dick Vitale Intercollegiate Classic last fall.
Will Grant, Sophomore, Orlando, Florida
As a freshman last year, Grant had a 10-3 record in doubles in the spring with Johannes Ingildsen, including a pair of SEC victories. Grant won both of his singles appearances last spring, including clinching a team victory over Mercer. He was ranked as high as the No. 5 recruit in the country according to the Tennis Recruiting Network in high school and was a seven-time International Tennis Federation doubles champion before he came to Florida.
Lukas Greif, Junior, Newburgh, Ind.
A member of the 2019 SEC All-Freshman Team, Greif has a 11-1 career record in SEC singles matches. He qualified for the main singles draw at the 2019 ITA All-American Championship. He also won SEC Player of the Week on Feb. 19, 2020 after leading a comeback against No. 6 Wake Forest at ITA National Team Indoors.
Johannes Ingildsen, Redshirt Senior, Copenhagen, Denmark
Returning for a fifth season, Ingildsen has been a staple in the Gators’ roster since Fall 2016. He has been a two-time Second Team All-SEC (2018, 2019) and two-time All-American in doubles( 2017-18). Ingildsen has recorded 98 singles victories and 86 doubles victories across his four years at Florida. He reached a career-high ITA doubles ranking of No. 24 in Feb. 2020.
Sam Riffice, Junior, Orlando, Florida
Riffice is one of two captains for the upcoming season. He was named SEC Freshman of the Week twice (Feb. 6, 2019, and March 26, 2019) and 2019 ITA Southeast Region Rookie of the Year after going 10-0 in SEC singles as a freshman. Riffice has notched 42 overall singles victories and 34 overall doubles victories in only two seasons. He was also pegged as the 2020 ITA Southeast Region Player to Watch and the ITA National Player to Watch.
Ben Shelton, Freshman, Gainesville, Florida
A local freshman, Shelton attended Buchholz High School in Gainesville. He’s the reigning FHSAA State Champion in singles. Shelton won doubles at the 2019 United States Tennis Association Boys 16s Clay Courts Champion and was a finalist in singles at the 2020 USTA Boys 18s Winter Nationals. He is also the son of head coach Bryan Shelton.
Duarte Vale, Senior, Cascais, Portugal
Vale is the other captain this season. He has gone 9-0 and 4-0 in SEC singles the past two seasons. He posted a team-leading 27 singles victories last season and reached a career-high ITA singles ranking on No. 11 in Feb. 2020. He won the singles title at 2019 ITA Southeast Regionals. He’s also been named an ITA All-American twice (2018 - doubles, 2020 - singles).
Contact Ryan Haley at rhaley@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @ryan_dhaley.
Senior captain Duarte Vale is one of nine returning players to the team as it begins the 2020 season.
Ryan Haley, a UF journalism senior with a sports & media specialization from Jacksonville, Florida, is Summer 2022's Engagement Managing Editor. He grew up playing a bunch of different sports before settling on golf, following Rory McIlroy and all Philadelphia sports teams. He also loves all things fiction, reading, watching shows and movies and talking about whatever current story or character is in his head.
