Double Trouble

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Five weeks into the outdoor season, the senior tandem of Gordon Watson and Diego Hidalgo were on top of the world.

Their world.

The top-ranked men's doubles team in college tennis.

Watson and Hidalgo did enough in that first month-plus to feed the computer rankings the points necessary to take them to the top of the polls. Looking back, the two recall being No. 1 "as kind of cool," until they felt the need to go out every match and justify that number in front of their names.

"I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves," Watson said.

"Me? I just wasn't playing very good in doubles, at all," Hidalgo said. "I accepted that."

They had no choice. Not after being beaten three straight times: at Ohio State, in a match the team also lost 4-3; at home against Florida State, in one of the few blemishes to an otherwise stellar 7-0 demo job of the Seminoles; and at LSU, where the Gators dropped the team doubles point, but rallied in singles for a 4-3 win.

That's when the two made a pact.

Let's forget about the rankings … and just play.

Watson and Hidalgo won their next match, a big one (albeit in a team loss) against Texas A&M, and even after momentarily dropping to No. 2 in the rankings they're back on top again, winners of 11 of the previous and 13 matches and riding a nine-match victory streak heading into NCAA Championship play, which for No. 9-seed Florida (18-6) opens Saturday against North Florida (11-11) at Linder Stadium.

For these guys, playing looser means playing better.

"At the beginning, being No. 1 was good and all, but we started to think too much about it and just weren't playing our best tennis," Hidalgo said. "After we lost those matches, we just kind of decided, 'OK, let's just focus on us, let the ranking be whatever it is.' That was the turning point."

Sometimes things are just that simple. The genesis of their pairing took a little more thought.

Getting the two together was something of a process for UF coach Bryan Shelton, who experimented with several different doubles combination during Watson and Hidalgo's first two seasons before realizing theirs was an ideal match. Why?

"Probably because they're so different," Shelton said.

Gordon Watson (serving) and Diego Hidalgo (foreground) in action during UF's upset of sixth-ranked Georgia at the SEC Tournament.

Let's start with their background.

Watson is an only child from Naples, Fla. His father was his life-long coach, so tennis became his life. Though a Floridian, he didn't start seeing his life through orange and blue goggles until he was first recruited by Shelton's predecessor. Andy Jackson, Watson said, was the reason he committed to the Gators, graduated from high school and showed up in the 2012 spring semester in time to be red-shirted … and be on hand when Jackson was fired.

"That was difficult for me," Watson said. "You go from doing things one way, then halfway into the summer everything changed; the head coach, the assistant, the trainer, everything. It went from one extreme to another and that was hard. But I also could see a difference in the overall attitude of the players and coaches, and I could tell it was all for the better. I bought in."

His partner, meanwhile, was sold from the get-go. Hidalgo already was playing in his native Ecuador when he and his father went looking for collegiate options in America. They did their research and after swapping emails chose to pay Florida (and its new coach) a visit in the summer of '12. Hidalgo instantly became one of the bedrocks of Shelton's first signing class.

"From the time we got here, I loved everything about the school, the town, the trees — everything," he said. "But what was most important to me was the coaching staff. After meeting with Coach Shelton, I believed he was going to help me reach my potential as a player and a person."

Eventually, that timeline led him onto a doubles court with Watson, who became something of yin to Hidalgo's yang.

Watson's more flat-lined demeanor seemed to play off nicely with Hidalgo's outward emotions.

"Diego is Latin and wears his emotions and puts it all out there," Shelton said. "The other guy is 'Cool Hand Luke.' Just doesn't show you much."

Watson is right-handed, while Hidalgo is a lefty. For opponents, that can be a unique look. Both players are solid in their all-around games, but Watson has a feel around the net and his volley game plays nicely off Hidalgo's power from the baseline.

"Both have great skill sets and can do multiple things out there on the court. It's not just big serve or big return of serve, it's the little shots," Shelton said. "There's a mutual respect they have for one another, which leads to confidence and a chemistry that prevents them getting too up or too down."

The difference in personalities blend out over the course of a match.

"My emotions, I used to think, were a weakness," Hidalgo said. "I don't think that any more because we've found a way to balance it out."

Said Watson: "We just understand now how to pump up each other or calm each other down."

Seven straight victories are a testament to that.

Now come NCAAs, where the doubles point stakes only get higher. The Gators, who won the Southeastern Conference Tournament title by avenging both regular-season in-league losses (against No. 4 Georgia and No. 13 A&M), have one of the strongest trio of doubles teams in the country. Winning the all-important doubles point is not only a huge edge on the scoreboard, but mentally as well, as the loser must take four of the six singles matches.

The Watson-Hidalgo two-headed monster is one of the reasons Florida is among the hottest teams in the nation heading to Oklahoma, where the pair also will get a crack, after the team competition, at playing in the doubles the draw, which becomes a best-of-three competition, as opposed to single-set competition in team play.

As far as their concerned — and as far as the UF team is concerned — no goal is too high for this team. Not the way these Gators are trending.

"In the past few years, I don't think we really believed we could win it," Watson said. "We have proof now. The [SEC Tournament] didn't change our thinking, 'cause we knew we were good. It reinforced it."

"We believe," Hidalgo said. "Our expectations may be high, but we're not talking about them or thinking about them or putting any pressure on ourselves. That doesn't work for us. We're going to take it slow and smart."

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