NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Ole Miss men’s tennis team wrapped up play at the Commodore Invitational on Sunday, closing out the tournament with a pair of singles wins to finish off the team’s weekend in Nashville.
The Rebels closed out Sunday with a record of 2-2 in singles and 0-2 in doubles, finishing their weekend 5-11 overall in singles and 1-5 overall in doubles to open the fall season.
“We had three good days of tough competition,” head coach Toby Hansson said. “I feel like we learned a lot from these matches and I feel like it gives us a lot of motivation to keep improving.”
John Hallquist Lithén tackled yet another ranked foe in his final singles match of the weekend playing in Flight A, battling it out with No. 91 Nate Bonetto of Florida. Lithén would drop the opening set to Bonetto in a 7-6 tiebreak, but the junior bounced back for the Rebels by earning hard-fought 7-5 and 6-4 set victories to close out his Commodore Invite with a win.
“These weekends where we play many different teams and many different matches, it gets tough in terms of fatigue,” Lithén said. “Friday and Saturday you’re feeling fresh, but then Sunday everyone is tired, so it was definitely tough to find some energy in the beginning of singles. I really just tried my best to gather myself, refocus and then just push myself for every point.”
Lithén ends his weekend a team-best 3-1 overall in singles play, notching two ranked wins over No. 91 Bonetto and No. 59 Joubert Klopper of Vanderbilt on Friday. The Gothenburg, Sweden, native comes off of a 2022 dual season where he also tallied a pair of ranked singles victories, primarily playing in the No. 3 singles position for the Rebels.
“I honestly don’t look into the rankings of players all that much,” Lithén said. “I played two ranked players and two unranked players this weekend, and honestly I’d say the unranked players were just as good as the ranked players. My main focus is to always just play my game. If you play your game you can beat anyone, but if you don’t stick to your game that’s when you can lose to everyone.”
Freshman Gordon Whitwell also helped put an exclamation point on the Rebels’ day three finale by notching his first collegiate singles win with Ole Miss, taking down Vanderbilt’s Paul Wang 6-1, 6-3. Whitwell stands as the lone freshman in the Rebel lineup for this fall…
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