It was a disappointing day for Alfredo Perez and the Florida men’s tennis team at the NCAA Individual Championships in Athens, Georgia.
Perez took part in the Round of 16 in the singles and doubles tournaments on Friday and was eliminated from both competitions despite capturing the first set in each match.
The Havana, Cuba, native began the day with a singles match against North Carolina’s William Blumberg, who came into the match red-hot after leading his team to the NCAA Team Championships final. Perez claimed the first set 7-5, but conceded the second set to Blumberg 6-4.
The third set saw the Tar Heel jump out to a 5-2 lead. However, it looked as if the door was left open for Perez when he broke Blumberg to move the score to 5-3. But in the sophomore’s next service game, Blumberg slammed the door shut, breaking Perez’s serve and taking the match 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
Despite losing in singles, Perez still had high hopes of chasing silverware in the doubles tournament, especially after he and his partner, freshman Johannes Ingildsen, took the first set of their match, 7-6.
However, their opponents, Juan Benitez and Will Little of Baylor, responded strongly in the second set, breaking the nation’s third-ranked doubles tandem three times. The match then moved to a tiebreaker, where each team went point for point before Benitez and Little were able to score three consecutive points and take a commanding 9-6 lead.
The Bears eventually took the tiebreak to clinch the match, eliminating all of UF’s players from NCAA competition by a final tally of 6-7, 6-2, 10-8.
Contact Mark Stine at mstine@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @mstinejr.
Junior Alfredo Perez (left) was the lone Gator to win his singles match at the NCAA Individual Championships. Sophomore Johannes Ingildsen dropped his match, but will be back in action with Perez in doubles on Thursday.
