When the Gators play Texas A&M today, they’ll take the court with newfound confidence in one specific area: doubles.
Florida is coming off of a match where it won the doubles point over one of the top teams in the nation, No. 1 Ohio State.
“I liked the three teams that I saw this past weekend, and we are going to go with those three teams again this weekend,” coach Bryan Shelton said. “I thought that we put ourselves in good positions out there with our formations, and we played to our strengths on each of those doubles matches.”
A tandem of underclassmen leads the doubles brigade: sophomore Alfredo Perez and freshman Johannes Ingildsen. This partnership is currently ranked as the ninth-best doubles team in the country and has only lost once in 2017.
Following the young guns are two teams made up of upperclassmen.
The second team for the Gators features senior captain Elliott Orkin, who lost early season partner McClain Kessler to injury, and senior Maxx Lipman. The final partnership consists of juniors Chase Perez-Blanco and Josh Wardell, who won their doubles match easily over the Buckeyes by a score of 6-2.
Getting the doubles partnerships right will be massive help to the Gators, who need to have chemistry and be familiar with their SEC opponents come the conference tournament. It will also help them focus on singles play.
Singles has been a strength for Florida. However, against the Buckeyes, a weakness was exploited in Florida’s physicality.
“We’ve got to be more physically tough throughout,” Shelton said. “So we are going to push our guys, change the workouts a little bit to increase the intensity and really get them to feel their hearts pumping. We’ve got to get physically stronger as we go through the season.”
In their matchup with Ohio State, the Gators looked as if they were fading late in the match. The high quality Buckeye tennis caused lots of stress on players’ legs, causing looks of fatigue and visits from the trainers.
“We have to be able to go the distance if we have to,” Shelton said. “If a team pushes us to that place we’ve got to continue to get stronger as those matches go along. It’s only going to get warmer.”
Contact Mark Stine at mstine@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @mstinejr.
Alfredo Perez hits a backhand during Florida's 4-2 against UCLA on Feb. 5, 2017, at the Ring Tennis Complex.
