ORLANDO, Fla. – To finish their Florida careers, Will Grant and Axel Nefve will take on the NCAA Individual Championships this week in Orlando at the USTA National Campus. The singles and doubles competition, which consists of 64 singles players and 32 doubles teams, will be conducted May 22-27.
Beginning on Monday at 6 p.m. ET, Nefve will begin his journey in the singles tournament after earning an at-large bid as the No. 32 player in the country by the ITA. The round of 64 matchup for the graduate student will be against the No. 7 seed Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc of Florida State. Nefve and Cornut-Chauvinc met earlier this season at USTA’s College MatchDay on Feb. 2, where Cornut-Chauvinc won their first matchup.
On the following day, Grant and Nefve will pair up in the doubles competition beginning in the round of 32 at a time to be announced, squaring up versus Florida State’s Joshua Dous-Karpenschif and Cornut-Chauvinc.
Nefve, who held down the No. 1 spot for the Gators all season, returns to the NCAA Singles Championship for the third consecutive year. Previously at Notre Dame, Nefve reached the round of 32 in both the 2021 and 2022 tournament. Playing the toughest singles slate of anyone on the team, the Delray Beach, Fla. native faced a team-high 18 ranked opponents and led Florida with seven ranked-victories in dual play. During the 2022-23 season, Nefve had 15 matches against opponents in the championship draw.
The tandem of Nefve and Grant commanded the top doubles position for Florida, taking down nine ranked-pairs, including three in the top-10. Entering the tournament as a 5-8 seed, Grant/Nefve are 15-11 overall, 14-8 in duals and 8-3 in the SEC. 15 of the duo’s 31 matches were versus pairs in the championship draw, earning a 7-6 record. Both Grant and Nefve previously competed at the NCAA Doubles Championship in 2021.
The Gators have produced the last two NCAA Singles Champions in Sam Riffice (2021) and Ben Shelton (2022), joining Mark Merklein (1994) and Jeff Morrison (1999) for four overall in program history. Additionally, Florida’s David Blair/Mark Merklein were crowned the NCAA Doubles Champion in 1993.
All matches shall be the best-of-three sets. No-ad scoring and a seven-point tiebreaker (first to seven points, must win by two points) at six-games-all will be used for all matches. In doubles, a 10-point match tiebreaker will be played in lieu of a third set.
NEFVE VS. THE DRAW
Beginning on Monday at 6 p.m. ET, Nefve will begin his journey in the singles tournament after earning an at-large bid as the No. 32 player in the country by the ITA. The round of 64 matchup for the graduate student will be against the No. 7 seed Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc of Florida State. Nefve and Cornut-Chauvinc met earlier this season at USTA’s College MatchDay on Feb. 2, where Cornut-Chauvinc won their first matchup.
On the following day, Grant and Nefve will pair up in the doubles competition beginning in the round of 32 at a time to be announced, squaring up versus Florida State’s Joshua Dous-Karpenschif and Cornut-Chauvinc.
Nefve, who held down the No. 1 spot for the Gators all season, returns to the NCAA Singles Championship for the third consecutive year. Previously at Notre Dame, Nefve reached the round of 32 in both the 2021 and 2022 tournament. Playing the toughest singles slate of anyone on the team, the Delray Beach, Fla. native faced a team-high 18 ranked opponents and led Florida with seven ranked-victories in dual play. During the 2022-23 season, Nefve had 15 matches against opponents in the championship draw.
The tandem of Nefve and Grant commanded the top doubles position for Florida, taking down nine ranked-pairs, including three in the top-10. Entering the tournament as a 5-8 seed, Grant/Nefve are 15-11 overall, 14-8 in duals and 8-3 in the SEC. 15 of the duo’s 31 matches were versus pairs in the championship draw, earning a 7-6 record. Both Grant and Nefve previously competed at the NCAA Doubles Championship in 2021.
The Gators have produced the last two NCAA Singles Champions in Sam Riffice (2021) and Ben Shelton (2022), joining Mark Merklein (1994) and Jeff Morrison (1999) for four overall in program history. Additionally, Florida’s David Blair/Mark Merklein were crowned the NCAA Doubles Champion in 1993.
All matches shall be the best-of-three sets. No-ad scoring and a seven-point tiebreaker (first to seven points, must win by two points) at six-games-all will be used for all matches. In doubles, a 10-point match tiebreaker will be played in lieu of a third set.
NEFVE VS. THE DRAW
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