The Florida men’s tennis team will begin a four-match road trip on Friday.
The No. 10 Gators (12-6, 7-1 SEC) will face the No. 1 team in the nation Wake Forest (15-1, 4-1 ACC) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, at 3 p.m.
Florida enters the contest on a four-match win streak, and doubles is a big reason why.
The Gators have won the doubles point in all four of their matches during the streak and are 11-1 overall when they win the point.
UF has shown that it can win on all three courts. The team proved this on March 25 after the No. 1-ranked pair of sophomore Johannes Ingildsen and junior Alfredo Perez lost its first doubles match since Jan. 22 on Court 1 against Arkansas.
“We didn’t really play bad in that match,” Ingildsen said. “We lost a couple of deuce points, which happens.”
Instead of panicking, the other two doubles teams picked up the slack and won both matches to win the doubles point.
Against Wake Forest, all three teams will need to be at the top of their games.
The strong doubles play from the Demon Deacons is led by the No. 2-ranked tandem in the nation of junior Petros Chrysochos and senior Skander Mansouri.
Wake Forest also has two other ranked doubles teams, including No. 27-ranked pair of redshirt junior Julian Zlobinsky and redshirt senior Christian Seraphim.
But the strength of the Demon Deacons is in their singles play.
“A lot of respect for the individuals they throw at you in the lineup,” coach Bryan Shelton said. “Their top three is a three-headed monster.”
All three of Wake’s top singles players are ranked, including No. 7 Chrysochos, No. 29 sophomore Borna Gojo and No. 30 Mansouri.
On its run, Florida has also shined through its singles play.
Freshman Oliver Crawford has won 10 consecutive singles matches and is undefeated in SEC singles (8-0) and doubles (6-0). Senior Chase Perez-Blanco has also won six consecutive singles matches.
The matchup will be one of Florida’s toughest tests, but Shelton asserted that his team is confident and ready to face another top team.
“The guys are excited,” Shelton said. “We have played a lot of the teams in the top 10, and this is another big challenge.”
Follow Dylan Rudolph on Twitter @dyrudolph and contact him at drudolph@alligator.org.
Coach Bryan Shelton said he respects the No. 1 ranking achieved by Wake Forest. “Their top three is a three-headed monster," he said.
