The last day of competition was far from uneventful for Florida’s men’s tennis team.
The Gators left Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a doubles title and a consolation singles title from the ITA All-American Championships tournament on Monday.
Sophomore Johannes Ingildsen started off the day strong in his championship match against Valentin Vacherot of Texas A&M. Ingildsen took the match in two straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, and claimed the consolation singles title for the Gators.
Following the consolation singles match, the No. 5-ranked duo of Ingildsen and junior Alfredo Perez competed in the championship doubles match against No. 3-ranked William Blumberg and Robert Kelly of North Carolina.
The Gators fought hard in a three-set match to claim the championship title with scores of 7-6, 3-6, 10-7. The win secured the duo’s fifth victory of the tournament in doubles play.
Ingildsen was able to exact revenge on Blumberg in Monday’s doubles match after losing to him in the first round of singles play on Thursday, handing Ingildsen his only defeat of the tournament.
Blumberg advanced through the rest of the tournament and claimed the singles title on Monday.
Despite the early loss to Blumberg in singles play, the Denmark native had the strongest showing of the all the Gators who competed in Tulsa. Overall, Ingildsen went 10-1 in singles and doubles competition combined, notching five wins apiece in the two tournaments.
Perez had some successful outings as well over the past few days. The Cuba native went 3-1 in singles play, with his only loss coming against Martin Redlicki of UCLA in the round of 16 in the main draw on Saturday.
Another notable moment from the doubles tournament was the semifinal match between the UF duo of sophomore McClain Kessler and freshman Duarte Vale against Perez and Ingildsen.
Kessler and Vale lost 7-6, 7-6, knocking them out of contention for the championship round. However, the Gator duo held a strong record of 3-1 in the main draw throughout the tournament.
The next competition for the men’s team will be on the road in Atlanta in the USTA/ITA Regional Championship beginning on Friday.
You can follow Mari Faiello on Twitter @faiello_mari, and contact him 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.
