After a day of rain and four rounds of competitive qualifying play over the weekend, two Florida men’s tennis players will battle in the City of Sunrise Pro Tennis Classic’s main draw this morning.
Freshmen Duarte Vale and Oliver Crawford will represent the Gators as the youngest of 32 players in the tournament.
Eight of the 10 players on UF’s roster participated in the event’s qualifying rounds, with junior Alfredo Perez resting for Monday’s home opener against UCF and redshirt senior Joshua Wardell out due to a season-ending injury.
Two rounds into last weekend’s action, six Gators remained unbeaten. But third-round losses from senior Chase Perez-Blanco, junior McClain Kessler and sophomore Johannes Ingildsen left only the two freshmen and senior Jordan Belga undefeated.
Belga fell in the final round of his bracket to Crawford (6-1, 6-1).
Crawford is scheduled to play the 512th world-ranked singles player, Fred Gil of Portugal. The match will mark Crawford’s greatest challenge so far in his first season with Florida.
Vale’s first round opponent is Strong Kirchheimer, who played the No. 1 singles court at Northwestern before graduating last year. In November, Kirchheimer held a top-900 singles ranking in the world.
The two will play no sooner than 11 a.m. and will be immediately followed by Crawford's match against Gil.
Follow Benjamin Brandt on Twitter @bhb1227 and contact him at bbrandt@alligator.org.
Coach Bryan Shelton will watch two of his freshmen compete in the main draw on Wednesday afternoon.
