Stephen Madonia and Andres Andrade may be teammates at Florida, but for a couple hours on Monday, they were opponents competing to win the ITA Summer Circuit singles tournament in Gainesville.
Held at the Ring Tennis Complex from Saturday to Monday, the event featured a draw of 64 players in both the men’s and women’s singles bracket and a draw of 32 pairs in the men’s and women’s doubles bracket.
Madonia and Andrade tore through doubles action throughout the weekend as a tandem, reaching the finals before falling to Kaden Funk and Jericho Grollman.
But in singles, the two Gators were on opposite sides of the bracket, meaning they’d only play against each other if they both reached the championship match.
Andrade, the bracket’s No. 1-seed, lost just one set leading up to the final round against Hsiang Chein Wang. The incoming freshman defeated Eduardo Roldan 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals and Ben Shelton by default in the semifinals.
Madonia, entering his sophomore year at UF, also had an easy road to the end. After cruising to a 6-3, 6-4 win against Jake Briggs and a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Terrell Whitehurst, the Bradenton, Florida, native would win it all, besting Andrade in three sets.
In the women’s bracket, Brooke Austin dominated the competition, failing to lose a set in the tournament on the way to winning it all. She defeated Olivia Thaler 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals and Kylie Moulin 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals before downing Rachel Rohrabacher 6-4, 6-4 in the championship.
Contact Jake Dreilinger at jdreilinger@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @DreilingerJake.
Stephen Madonia hits a forehand during the 2016-17 Florida men’s tennis regular season at the Ring Tennis Complex.
