With the 2024 Division I NCAA Men's Tennis National Championship team competition finished, it’s now time for the individual tournament to begin. Florida Gators freshman Jeremy Jin was looking to do what four Gators have done before him and win an NCAA singles title.
Jin competed against No. 5-seeded Texas Longhorns senior Micah Braswell. After a tightly contested match that saw multiple momentum swings, especially in the second set, Braswell defeated Jin 6-3, 6-4, to advance to the next round of the tournament.
To start off the match, neither player could find their footing, both dropping serve games. Braswell was the first to hold serve and took a 2-1 lead in the set, while Jin continued to struggle on his serve. Jin ultimately fell behind 5-1 to Braswell in the first set. As the Gator began to settle into the match, Braswell responded defensively to close out the first set 6-3.
Both players held serve to start the second set deadlocked at 2-2. Jin got the break of serve to give him some much-needed momentum, and he used his energy to take a 4-2 lead.
Braswell continued to fight and worked his way to a 5-4 lead in the set to win three-straight games.
Braswell broke Jin’s serve to win the set and match.
Jin ended his freshman campaign with the Gators with a singles record of 16-13 and a doubles record of 11-12. Despite a strong start to the spring season, Jin ended on an eight-match losing streak in singles play.
The talented freshman reached the highest singles ranking of any UF player this season to come in at No. 50 in ITA rankings.
Contact Chandler Hawkes at chawkes@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @HawkesChandler.
