Tied at 8-all deep into the second set, junior Alfredo Perez knew that a lot was on the line going into the final points of his first-round match.
Perez’s hard-fought match against against Nicolas Moreno de Alboran of UC Santa Barbara in started at 2 p.m. Wednesday. Two sets and 163 points later, Perez claimed the win, the first tournament victory for Florida, with scores of 7-6(5), 7-6(8).
Overall, the Gators took away three wins and three losses on Wednesday at the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships in Indian Wells, California, the final collegiate tournament of the fall season.
Anna Danilina, the lone representative from the women’s team, had a rough start in the tournament. Danilina dropped the match against Vladica Babic of Oklahoma State with scores of 6-3, 6-1.
The senior made some critical errors that ended up giving Babic the advantage, including four double faults and no aces throughout the entire match.
UF sophomore Johannes Ingildsen had a tough match of his own, committing one double fault and winning only 18 out of 44 points in the first set. He went into the second set and quickly fell behind, 5-1.
Despite a great effort in making a comeback, Ingildsen dropped the match, 6-1, 7-5, against Alex Lebedev of Notre Dame.
In doubles play, the Gators took away two wins and one loss for the day.
The duo of freshman Duarte Vale and junior McClain Kessler were victorious in their match against Tim Handel and Ruben Montano of Northern Arizona, stealing the win with scores of 7-5, 6-2.
Vale and Kessler found their success in their doubles match by committing no double faults and scoring three aces throughout the match.
Freshman Oliver Crawford and senior Chase Perez-Blanco were not as fortunate. The pair was able to take the first set against Chema Carranza and Josef Dodridge of Wisconsin, but ultimately dropped the match, 4-6, 6-3, 10-7.
Ingildsen and Perez finished off the day for the Gators with a win against Christian Seraphim and Julian Zlobinsky of Wake Forest, 6-3, 7-6(2).
The duo found their groove quickly extending their five-game season win streak to six.
On Thursday, Danilina will take the court at 11 a.m. against Linda Huang of Colorado in the first round of consolation singles play.
Perez will face off against Victor Pham of Columbia at 3:30 p.m. in the main draw of singles play.
Ingildsen will start his consolation singles match at 3:45 p.m. against Alexandre Ribeiro of Virginia Tech.
Start times for doubles draws were yet to be released as of press time.
Follow Mari Faiello on Twitter at @faiello_mari, or contact her at mfaiello@alligator.org.
UF's Alfredo Perez advanced in singles play at the National Fall Championships in Indian Wells, California, with a win over Nicolas Moreno de Alboran of UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday afternoon.
