While the football team deservedly receives national attention with its success under Urban Meyer, the men’s tennis team isn’t doing too bad itself as it looks to put together its ninth consecutive winning season under coach Andy Jackson.
The Gators will get their first taste of competition this weekend as four in-state schools -- South Florida, Central Florida, North Florida and Florida Atlantic – will travel to Gainesville to take part in the Gator Invitational.
Teams typically bring five to eight players, and each player will play both a singles and doubles match every day of the tournament.
There should be about six different singles groups with group one featuring the teams’ best player, Jackson said.
Although the three-day tournament doesn’t affect the team’s record, the opportunity to gain match experience is invaluable for a young roster that features only one senior.
Luckily for the Gators, senior Alexandre Lacroix is one of the top players in the country, as he is the International Tennis Association’s No. 9 singles player.
His impressive resume includes two consecutive first-team All-Southeastern Conference selections and ITA All-America honors in both singles and doubles in the spring of 2010.
Lacroix brings plenty of experience to the table, competing internationally in Syria, Belgium and France during his prep career.
As the most seasoned player on the roster, Lacroix will be leaned upon as a leader, but Jackson is not worried about the rest of the team’s perceived inexperience.
“Even though we are inexperienced on paper, four of our six players are from the team that was in the top eight all of last year,” Jackson said.
What’s even more exciting is that the two players who weren’t on that team are two highly touted freshmen.
Michael Alford and Andrew Butz came to UF this fall as the No. 10 and No. 20 overall recruits nationally, according to Tennisrecruiting.net.
Even as five-star recruits, both players have come in and exceeded expectations.
“We’ll know much more about them after the weekend, but they have done good in practice,” Jackson said. “They are even better than anticipated.”
This weekend will provide the Gators with a good look at their talented roster as they face their first competition of the season.
