Oliver Crawford dominated the USA F28 Futures from start to finish. The sophomore lost just one set in five matches en route to a two-set victory in the final over Great Britain’s Andrew Watson to claim the Harlingen 25k singles title.
Crawford earned a wildcard entry into the singles main draw and defeated two international opponents as well as three from America in his title run.
In Athens, Georgia, seven other members of the Florida men’s tennis team are looking to replicate Crawford’s success at the ITA All-American Regional Championships.
The first day of competition on Saturday saw five of six UF competitors in the singles main draw advance for the Gators. Duarte Vale, Lukas Greif, Andy Andrade and Johannes Ingildsen all cruised to fairly easy wins. McClain Kessler advanced with a win over Antoine Sanchez (Stetson), who retired early due to an injury.
The Gators had three competitors advance to the main draw singles quarterfinals with wins on Sunday. Vale swept Alex Phillips (Georgia) 6-2, 6-2, Andrade won after an early exit by Andrew Li (Georgia Tech) as a result of an injury 6-2, 1-0 and Ingildsen won a three set match over Richard Thongoana (Florida State) 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.
The singles quarterfinals will be held today at 10 a.m. with Ingildsen set to play Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi (UCF), while Vale will match up with Adria Soriano Barrera (Miami) and Andrade will see Jan Zielinski (Georgia).
All three of UF’s doubles teams advanced to the quarterfinals after sweeping through the competition in the second and third rounds and will play in the Elite Eight at 4:30 p.m. today. McClain and Kessler face off with Felipe Escobar and Mateo Ruiz (FGCU), Andrade and Greif play Sebastian Arcila and Alex Knaff (Florida State) and Ingildsen and Berdusco will see Alvaro Fernandez Horta and Mehdi Laalej (FAU).
The women’s tennis team also got out to a hot start in the ITA All-American Southeastern Regionals in Atlanta this past weekend.
The duos of Ida Jarlskog and Tsveta Dimitrova and McCartney Kessler and Victoria Emma moved on to the semifinals in the doubles main draw. Jarlskog and Dimitrova beat Arianne De Winter and Paula Boixader (Georgia Southern) 8-4 in the Round of 16 and moved on to play Lucia Marzal Martinez and Ana Madcur (Miami) whom they also beat (8-3).
The trio of Kessler, Emma and Jarlskog advanced through the first round of the singles main draw easily, never losing a set. Kessler beat out Julia Mikulski (FSU) 3-0 after she retired early. Emma swept Rafaela Gomez (UNF) 6-4, 6-4 and Jarlskog swept Natalia Serrano (UCF) 6-1, 6-1. The main draw singles semifinal featured three Gators and saw Emma match up against Jarlskog while Kessler played Marta Gonzalez (Georgia). Kessler beat Gonzalez 6-3, 6-1 to set up a Florida final against Jarlskog, who beat Emma 6-2, 4-6, 6-0. The two will match up today for the singles title. A time for this match has not yet been made available.
Follow Kyle Wood on Twitter @Kkylewood or contact him at kwood@alligator.org.
Sophomore Oliver Crawford won the singles portion of the USA F28 Futures tournament in Harlingen, Texas.
