GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The ninth-ranked Gators battled the elements Sunday to improve their record to 3-0 on the young season, sweeping South Florida 4-0 and winning the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional Championship.
With rain in the forecast all afternoon it was unclear just how many matches would be played outside Sunday. Florida and South Florida hit the courts at 2 p.m. for doubles, with the hope of at least completing all three of those matches.
At No. 3 doubles,
Oliver Crawford and
Chase Perez-Blanco continued their electric start to the season winning the first doubles match by a score of 6-2. The Gators won the doubles point at No. 2 doubles with
McClain Kessler and
Duarte Vale winning by a score of 6-3.
Just one serve into the singles matches the rain began to fall and everything was moved inside to the Charles R. and Nancy V. Perry Indoor Tennis Facility. With three courts and six matches to be played, the top three singles matches were to be played first followed by the final three. However,
Andy Andrade at No. 5 singles had already begun his match prior to the rain so Andrade took court three, while
Alfredo Perez was on court one and
Johannes Ingildsen was on court two.
Ingildsen gave the Gators their second point in the match with a 6-3, 6-3 decision. In a back-and-forth battle at No. 1 singles is was Perez who used the momentum he earned with his thrilling set one tiebreak victory to take the match 7-6, 6-2 and give Florida a commanding lead.
The match that proved pivotal was the one that started outside, just before the rain. Andrade won the first set easily 6-2, but after facing his first true test of the season and battling adversity, he rebounded from a 4-6 set two loss to clinch his first match as a Gator with a 6-3 win in the final set.
Quoting Coach Shelton
On moving from the outside courts to the inside
"It's a little bit of an adjustment since the conditions inside are a lot faster. For our guys, it's really important to try and strike first and I think when we did that we were successful. Overall I think we handled ourselves pretty well. It's not easy to all of a sudden go from one surface to another and we handled that as well as we thought they would at home."
On if they needed to change up their game knowing rain was in the forecast
"No, we didn't talk much about moving any quicker. We were hoping that we could win the doubles point outside and get the singles matches going so we could get further along and we certainly wanted all six of our guys to be able to play singles today."
On what he was really impressed with
"Our energy and competitive spirit are just really good overall. Guys that were and weren't playing. Our team is really well connected and I thought from start to finish our energy was great. With Andy, he has won so easily in his first couple of matches here and all of a sudden he faced adversity for the first time. He was able to gain his composure back in the third set and make some adjustments."
Quoting Alfredo
On his passion during the match
"The match meant a lot to me. I wanted to do my part for the team because I haven't done my part the last couple matches. The matches I won didn't really count. I just wanted to win and I didn't want to lose to a friend."
On coming back from an emotional first set in singles
"I knew if I won the first he would go away a little bit. It was what I needed to do. After that set, I started to hit better and things started to go my way
Match Results
Doubles
#1 – #1
Alfredo Perez /
Johannes Ingildsen (UF) vs Grayson Goldin / Alberto Barroso-Campos – DNF, 5-4
#2 – #10
McClain Kessler /
Duarte Vale (UF) def. Sean Burnette / Pierre Luquet (USF) – 6-3
#3 – #11
Oliver Crawford /
Chase Perez-Blanco (UF) def. Peter Bertran / Jakub Wojcik (USF) – 6-2
Florida won Doubles Point
Order of Finish: 3, 2
Singles
#1 – #8
Alfredo Perez (UF) def. Grayson Goldin – 7-6, 6-2
#2 – #7
Johannes Ingildsen (UF) def. Alberto Barroso-Campos (USF) – 6-3, 6-3
#3 –
Oliver Crawford vs Peter Bertran – DNF
#4 – #39
Duarte Vale vs Sean Burnette – DNF
#5 –
Andy Andrade def. Jakub Wojcik – 6-2, 4-6, 6-3*
#6 –
Chase Perez-Blanco vs Pierre Luquet – DNF
Order of Finish: 2, 1, 5*
*Clincher
Up Next
No. 9 Florida will be under the bright lights of the United State Tennis Association National Campus when they travel to Orlando on Saturday, Feb. 3 to compete in the nationally televised College Match Day event. The Gators will take on Florida State at 7 p.m. as part of the Fresh From Florida Sunshine Showdown.
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