Junior Alfredo Perez advanced to the round of 16 in the NCAA Individual Men's Tennis Championships.
The Florida men’s tennis team saw two doubles teams and a singles player advance in the Individual Men’s Tennis Championship in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on Thursday.
In his third-consecutive round of 32 singles appearance, junior Alfredo Perez picked up right where he left off on Wednesday.
The Havana, Cuba, native used his strong serves to put his opponent on his heels. Perez dominated in the straight-sets win over Columbia’s Victor Pham 6-1, 6-2 to advance to the round of 16 for the second-consecutive year and earn him his second Singles All-American Award of his collegiate career. He is scheduled to play No. 3 Nuno Borges at 11:30 a.m.
Perez continued his impressive day in the Individual Doubles Championship with his partner, sophomore Johannes Ingildsen.
After the duo lost the first set to Stanford’s tandem of senior Tom Fawcett and freshman Axel Gelle, Perez and Ingildsen won the second to force a 10-point tiebreaker. The Florida team used the momentum to put the match away, 3-6, 7-6, 10-4. The victory marks the second-straight time the pair will advance to the round of 16. The two are set to play junior Fabian Fallert and sophomore Tim Sandkaulen of Mississippi on Friday at 3 p.m.
Freshman Duarte Vale and junior McClain Kessler had a solid day as well in their first Doubles Championships together against TCU’s highly ranked duo of Guillermo Nuñez and Alex Rybakov.
The two teams split the first two sets 6-3, 3-6 to force another 10-point tiebreaker. Vale and Kessler took over to win five-straight points on their way to a 10-4 upset to advance to the Round of 16. The pair will meet senior Christian Langmo and freshman Adria Soriano Barrera of Miami at 1 p.m. on Friday.
Dylan Rudolph is a sports writer. Follow him on Twitter @dyrudolph and contact him at drudolph@alligator.org.
