Sekou Bangoura Jr. finished a strong weekend by winning the singles draw of the Lakewood Ranch Intercollegiate Clay Court Classic in Bradenton on Sunday.
No. 111 Bangoura battled Andres Carrasco of Arizona for three sets before capturing the win (6-4, 4-6, 6-1). A Bradenton native, Bangoura played in front of an estimated crowd of 500 people, coach Andy Jackson said.
“He showed a lot of strength and endurance and maturity,” Jackson said. “He played at a club he grew up at. There was a lot of pressure on him because it was his home club.”
After being named to the Southeastern Conference All-Freshman Team and the ITA Southeast Region Rookie of the Year last spring, Bangoura has developed into one of the Gators’ top players this fall.
“Last year I thought he was one of the best freshmen in the country,” Jackson said. “This year I think he’s close to being one of the best players in the country. We’re fortunate because we’ve got three or four of those guys on our team.”
Freshman Michael Alford won his singles consolation match after defeating Miami’s Omar Aly (7-6(3), 6-3). His next scheduled opponent, Julian Dehn, defaulted to make Alford the winner of the consolation bracket.
In doubles action, the Gators’ freshman duo of Alford and Andrew Butz made it to the finals but came up just short of a victory.
The team began the day with a semifinals win against Minnesota’s Sebastian Gallego and Tobias Wernet (8-6) but fell to another pair of Golden Gophers in Rok Bonin and Dehn (9-8(3)).
Both Alford and Butz have pleased Jackson with their ability to contribute early on.
“We’ve been very impressed with both of the freshmen that they are able to compete at the level that’s necessary straight away,” he said. “The thing that’s more exciting is you can see that there are so many things that they can easily improve on.”
