Three former University of Florida tennis stars took the grass courts Thursday, competing at Wimbledon at The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club. Jesse Levine headlined the trio as he marched into the third round of the gentlemen’s singles draw at The Championships. Jill Craybas and Lisa Raymond lost their respective ladies’ doubles matches, but are still alive in mixed doubles play.

Levine, who competed for the Orange & Blue during the 2007 season, defeated Pablo Cuevas (URU), 6-2, 6-1, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, to reach the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his young career. Levine reached Wimbledon’s second round last year, as well as the second round of the 2008 Australian Open to mark his previous best showings in a Grand Slam.

Levine, who played his way through three rounds of Wimbledon qualifying matches to earn a spot in the main draw, earned the important break in the sixth game of the fifth set to take a 4-2 lead. He held in the seventh game, where he never faced a break point and battled through several duces to hold the 5-2 advantage. Cuevas held in a quick game to keep the pressure on the “Little Lefty,” who battled back from dropping the first two points of his serve to win the final four points and emerge with the hard-fought five-set victory.

“Jesse played very well for the first two sets and the last three I think he started thinking about winning the match and it’s a lot harder to win when you think that way,” said UF men’s head coach Andy Jackson, who was in the stands watching Levine perform at Wimbledon. “He pushed through and has another great opportunity in the next round. It’s great to see him play as well as he is because so many people want to say that you can’t do well on the pro tour if you go to college. More importantly, Jesse is such a great guy and he is so proud to be a Gator.”

Levine plays 19th-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) in the third round.

Raymond and her partner Vera Zvonareva (RUS), the No. 9 seed, were forced to retire in the first set of their opening round doubles match, down 6-5, to Sara Errani (ITA) and Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP). Raymond, the 1992 & 1993 NCAA Singles Champion, continues play in the Mixed Doubles draw, where she and Marcin Matkowski (POL) are the No. 3 seed and received a first-round bye.

Craybas, who advanced to the second round of the Ladies’ Singles draw, lost her first round doubles match Thursday with Carly Gullickson against 15th-seeded Chia-Jung Chuang (TPE) and Sania Mirza (IND), 6-4, 6-2. Craybas, the 1996 NCAA Singles Champion, pairs in the Mixed Doubles event with Jeff Coetzee and have not played their first round contest yet.

Live results from Wimbledon can be found at: www.wimbledon.org

-UF-