GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida Gators men's tennis head coach Bryan Shelton announced the 2021-22 schedule Friday morning, highlighted by17 matches against opponents who were ranked in the top 60 of the final ITA rankings last season. Five of these rankings include top-10 matchups with Texas, Tennessee, TCU, Texas A&M and Georgia.
To open the season, Florida is set to compete at home with the Gator Fall Invite on Sept. 10-12. Closing out the month is the Laver Cup in Boston on Sept. 24-26.
In October, the ITA All-American Championships are set to begin Oct. 1-10 in Tulsa, Okla. Florida will also host the ITA Regional Championships in Gainesville on Oct. 21-24.
The fall will conclude with the ITA National Fall Championships in San Diego on Nov. 4-7.
After the conclusion of the fall season, the month of January will be a busy one for the Gators as they open the spring slatewith a trip to Texas to take on the TCU Horned Frogs and the Texas Longhorns, a team Florida beat in the semifinals en route to the 2021 Team National Championship. The Gators will travel to Fort Worth first for a match against TCU on Friday, Jan. 14, then head to Austin for a rematch against Texas on Sunday, Jan. 16.
After two road matches, UF comes home for the rest of the month. First, Florida welcomes the UCF Knights to Gainesville on Saturday, Jan. 22.
Following this, the Gators host the ITA Kick-Off Weekend with Florida State, Princeton and UNC-Wilmington coming to town. The first matches are set for Saturday, Jan. 29 with FSU and UNCW playing at 11 a.m. and Florida and Princeton following at 2 p.m. The next day, the ITA Kick-Off Consolation and Championship matches will be held at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., respectively.
Florida travels to Lake Nona, Fla., a few days later to potentially compete against Florida State for a second time that week on Saturday, Feb. 5. If qualified, the Gators will have a break in between the FSU match and the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Seattle, which will be held on Friday, Feb. 18-21.
The SEC regular season begins in early March as Florida opens the month with a home conference match against South Carolina on Friday, March 4 before leaving the Sunshine State for three tough, road SEC matches.
The first road test will be against Kentucky in Lexington on Sunday, March 6. Then, the Gators head to Georgia on Friday, March 11 and Tennessee on Sunday, March 13 before coming back home. The team will take on Illinois (March 16), Ole Miss (March 18) and Mississippi State (March 20) all in Gainesville before concluding the month with a road match at Arkansas on Friday, March 25.
The Gators open April with two home matches against SEC-foes LSU (April 1) and Vanderbilt (April 3) before heading to Alabama to take on the Crimson Tide and the Tigers at Auburn on April 8 and April 10, respectively.
To conclude its regular season conference slate, Florida hosts Texas A&M on Sunday, April 17 before going back to Athens for the SEC Tournament hosted by Georgia on April 20-24.
The Gators finished No. 1 in the final ITA rankings for the first time in program history last season after winning its first ever team national championship, while senior Sam Riffice earned the program's third NCAA Singles Championship. The team is returning eight from last year's national championship team, while adding three newcomers.
Those returning are Andy Andrade, Blaise Bicknell, Josh Goodger, Will Grant, Lukas Greif, Riffice, Ben Shelton and Duarte Vale. The newcomers for the 2021-22 season are freshmen Nate Bonetto and Abedallah Shelbayh, and grad transfer Mattias Siimar (Michigan).
For more information on the Florida Gators men's tennis team, follow @GatorsMTN on social.
| DATE | OPPONENT | LOCATION |
| SEPTEMBER | ||
| Fri. 10 - Sun. 12 | Gator Fall Invite | Gainesville, Fla. |
| Fri. 24 - Sun. 26 | Laver Cup | Flushing, N.Y. |
| OCTOBER | ||
| Fri. 1 - Sun. 10 | ITA All-American Championships | Tulsa, Okla. |
| Thurs. 21 - Sun. 24 | ITA Regional Championships | Gainesville, Fla. |
| NOVEMBER | ||
| Thurs. 4 - Sun. 7 | ITA National Fall Championships | San Diego, Calif. |
| JANUARY | ||
| Fri. 14 | at TCU | Fort Worth, Texas |
| Sun. 16 | at Texas | Austin, Texas |
| Sat. 22 | vs. UCF | Gainesville, Fla. |
| Sat. 29 - Sun. 30 | ITA Kickoff Weekend | Gainesville, Fla. |
| FEBRUARY | ||
| Sat. 5 | vs. Florida State | Lake Nona, Fla. |
| Fri. 18 - Mon. 21 | ITA National Team Indoors | Seattle, Wash. |
| MARCH | ||
| Fri. 4 | vs. South Carolina* | Gainesville, Fla. |
| Sun. 6 | at Kentucky* | Lexington, Ky. |
| Fri. 11 | at Georgia* | Athens, Ga. |
| Sun. 13 | at Tennessee* | Knoxville, Tenn. |
| Wed. 16 | Illinois | Gainesville, Fla. |
| Fri. 18 | vs. Ole Miss | Gainesville, Fla. |
| Sun. 20 | vs. Mississippi State* | Gainesville, Fla. |
| Fri. 25 | at Arkansas* | Fayetteville, Ark. |
| APRIL | ||
| Fri. 1 | vs. LSU* | Gainesville, Fla. |
| Sun. 3 | vs. Vanderbilt* | Gainesville, Fla. |
| Fri. 8 | at Alabama* | Tuscaloosa, Ala. |
| Sun. 10 | at Auburn* | Auburn, Ala. |
| Sun. 17 | Texas A&M* | Gainesville, Fla. |
| Wed. 20 - Sat. 24 | SEC Tournament | Athens, Ga. |
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