With five Fall tournaments under its belt, the Florida men’s tennis team is ready to work on its game during its week off.
The team just returned from two tournaments, with some players competing at the ITA All-American Championship and others playing in the Georgia Tech Invitational.
While coach Bryan Shelton believes no one really brought their best performance, many of the men still stood out this weekend.
One was Alfredo Perez.
The sophomore from Cuba reached the semifinals in the singles main draw of the ITA championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“I think he’s kind of proved to himself that he can be a force this year for the Gators,” Shelton said.
What makes Perez so special, according to Shelton, is his sheer talent as a competitor.
“His focus and everything seems to tighten up when he competes, and he’s able to raise his level when it’s needed,” Shelton said. “Obviously he’s a talented young man, but to compete the way he does is pretty special.”
Now that the team is back and has a 10-day break from competition, the men are able to focus on specific aspects of the game before travelling to Tallahassee to play in the USTA/ITA Regional Championships.
While Shelton says the team will practice serving, returning of serves, transition work, approaches and volleys, improving their doubles play will also be key focus.
“It’s something that we really just haven’t devoted enough time to,” Shelton said.
“We are putting more emphasis on our doubles play and really trying to look at some different doubles combinations within our team.”
Shelton also wants his players to work on balancing in the way they compete.
Shelton said his ultimate goal is for his players to play aggressively without making unforced errors.
“We want to be really clear with our identity, each guy clear with his identity as he’s playing and what he needs to do to be successful,” Shelton said.
He hopes that clarity in identity will continue to develop in the final weeks of the preseason, before they go out to the regional championships.
“I think Alfredo doing so well gave the whole team a little bit of a lift to know that at our top end, we are pretty darn good,” Shelton said.
“So I think we just got to fill in the rest. But I think our guys will be hungry and looking forward to the next tournament at Tallahassee and in the meantime, just work hard every single day to get better.”
Contact Cassie Amundson at camundson@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @camundson_.
Alfredo Perez returns a ball during Florida's 6-1 win over Troy on Jan. 17, 2016, at the Ring Tennis Complex.
