Florida Gators

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – The Gators endured a tough first day of matches at the ITA National Fall Championships, as Duarte Vale and Lukas Greif would drop their opening singles matches to slip into Thursday's consolation back draw at The Tennis Club in Newport Beach, Calif. Additionally, Johannes Ingildsen and Brian Berdusco would see themselves move into Thursday's doubles back draw, falling to a duo from Baylor in the doubles round of 32 to conclude their action in the main draw.
 
A plethora of top-100 ranked players among several programs across the country made for a number of challenging opening round singles matches, as both the Gators' singles matchups went into three sets.
 
No. 70 Lukas Greif took the court first for the Gators on the day against Illinois' No. 79 Zeke Clark. Greif engaged in a tight matchup with Clark, the draw's No. 6 seed, pulling away in tiebreak, 7-6 (3), to come away with the first set early on. Greif held steady, though, Clark would find the answer to come back and take the second set, 6-3, before knocking the sophomore off in six straight games to send Greif into the consolation back draw.
 
No. 70 Greif will go on to face Siem Woldeab of Texas in Thursday's consolation back draw round of 32.
 
No. 52 Duarte Vale would be the next Gator to take the court in Newport Beach, seeing his remarkable 13-game singles streak come to an end at the hands of South Carolina's No. 35 Daniel Rodrigues for his first loss of the fall season. Rodrigues, the draw's No. 10 seed, struck first to take the first set 6-4 over Vale. Vale responded with a 3-1 lead in the second set before dominating Rodrigues for three straight games to force a third set. Rodrigues then unfortunately proved to hold the hot hand late to come away with the 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 win to advance into Thursday's round of 32.
 
The match serves as Vale's first loss all year, holding a 13-1 record now this fall. He'll also join Greif in the consolation back draw round of 32, matching up with Illinois' No. 23 Alex Brown.
 
Doubles competition then commenced throughout the day, with Florida's No. 4 ranked Johannes Ingildsen and Brian Berdusco seeing Baylor's Constatin Frantzen and Sven Lah in the round of 32.
 
The Gators opened the match keeping it close up until Frantzen and Lah pulled away to notch a 6-4 decision in the first frame. Fighting to stay alive, Ingildsen and Berdusco would manage to take two games in the second, though, Frantzen and Lah would go on to hold off any comeback with a 6-2 decision to knock the Gators off in straight sets.
 
Ingildsen and Berdusco slip into the doubles consolation draw, facing Iowa's Matt Clegg and Nikita Snezhko on Thursday afternoon.
 
UP NEXT:
ITA National Fall Championships continues with Thursday's consolation round of 32 singles matches, beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET, followed by consolation doubles action at at The Tennis Club of Newport Beach.