A pair of Florida’s top-ranked men’s tennis players advanced to the second round of the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
No. 3 Oliver Crawford and No. 10 Sam Riffice both handled their opponents in singles play, while Johannes Ingildsen and Brian Berdusco moved on to the round of 16 in doubles play. Crawford, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, had a commanding 6-3 first set win over Aditya Vashistha of St. John’s before the match was postponed due to rain. After the delay and moving indoors, Crawford dropped the second set 6-3, leading to a decisive third set.
Florida’s top-ranked player answered by blanking Vashistha, defeating him 6-0 in the third set and advancing to the next round.
Riffice, the tournament’s No. 6 seed, needed just two sets to defeat Notre Dame’s Richard Ciamarra. The Orlando native had no problem taking down No. 43 Ciamarra, winning in straight sets 6-3, 7-5 performance to advance to the next day.
The No. 4 ranked duo of Ingildsen and Berdusco, the tournament’s No. 3 seed, were able to hold off comeback attempts in both sets from Radford’s Rodrigo Magalhaes and Yevhen Sirous, defeating them in a straight 7-5, 7-5 win.
The Gators pair is the only one that will represent the team in the quarterfinals, as No. 49 Riffice and Crawford fell to Illinois’ No. 19 Alex Brown and Aleks Kovacevic 7-5, 6-4.
Florida finished the day 2-1 in singles play after No. 70 Lukas Greif lost to No. 13 Juan Carlos Aguilar of Texas A&M, while UF’s doubles teams split an even record of 1-1.
Follow Victor Prieto on Twitter @victorprieto_11. Contact him at vprieto@alligator.org.
