Florida faced some tough competition in the first day of the Gator Ranked +1 and Ivy-Plus Invitational tournaments, but finished strong overall.
Freshmen Duarte Vale and Andy Andrade took their first collegiate wins and junior Jordan Belga advanced to the doubles semifinals on Sunday with his partner from UNC.
Day 1 of competition at the Gator Ranked +1 tournament in Gainesville ended with many Florida players earning victories in singles play.
Vale won his first match against No. 77 Ewan Moore (Tulane) in a hard-fought 7-5, 6-4 win. In his second singles match, he took an easy win against No. 67 Strahinja Rakic (Mississippi State) 6-3, 6-0.
In doubles action, McClain Kessler and Chase Perez-Blanco started out strong against North Florida’s Jefta Kecic and Lasse Muscheites, winning 8-4 and advancing to the semifinals on Saturday.
Kessler went 1-1 on Friday, losing to Giovanni Oradini of Mississippi State in three sets and winning against Brandon Lancaster of Louisville in two sets.
Perez-Blanco had a tough first day, losing to Scott Jones of Tennessee and Bar Botzer of Wake Forest in three sets each.
Vale and Alfredo Perez were also successful in doubles play against Louisville’s Federico Gomez and Nico Rouanet with an 8-2 victory.
Perez struggled in his first match of singles play against Yuval Solomon from Wake Forest. He dropped the match in two sets (7-6, 6-3), but came back with a victory against Paul Jubb from South Carolina (6-1, 6-1) to advance to the consolation semifinals tomorrow.
Johannes Ingildsen dominated in the morning with his doubles partner Lancaster (Louisville) to beat Constantin Schmitz and Moore from Tulane, earning an 8-7 win.
In singles play, Ingildsen fought hard against Luis Erlenbusch (Tulane) to earn a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win. His next opponent, Rouanet of Louisville, also played well, but Ingildsen came out victorious with a 2-6, 6-0, 6-3 win.
The Gators in Princeton, New Jersey, took away some strong wins as well in doubles action and singles play.
Andrade and Stephen Madonia paired in doubles action taking away a win against Ryan Seggerman and Diego Vives of Princeton (8-5); however thety ultimately lost to Kenny Tao and Lucas Koelle of Harvard (8-5) in the next round.
Andrade also beat Jimmy Wasserman of Princeton in singles play with a 6-3, 6-3 victory, and Madonia fell to Jack Mingji Lin of Columbia in a hard-fought match 7-6 (7-4), 6-0.
Jordan Belga had a very strong first day in New Jersey. He took away a two-set win against Daniel Grunberger of Cornell 7-6 (7-4), 6-1.
Belga also played well in doubles action with his partner Henry Patten (UNC-Asheville) to walk away with two victories against Aron Sandberg and Peter Litsky of Brown (8-2) and Feliksas Sakalauskas and Chase Bernstine of Virginia Tech (8-2).
Day 2 of the Gator Ranked +1 tournament will begin at 9 a.m. as Florida takes the courts for doubles action. The Ivy-Plus tournament will kick off at 8:30 a.m. as Belga plays against Chase Bernstine of Virginia Tech.
You can follow Mari Faiello on Twitter @faiello_mari, and contact her at mfaiello@alligator.org.
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.
