The Florida men’s tennis team had three players represent them in the Men’s Tennis Singles Championship in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on Wednesday, but only one will be moving on.
Two Gators played in the early matches at 8 a.m. on the lower courts.
On Court 3, freshman Oliver Crawford struggled against Florida State’s Lucas Poullain, losing in straight sets 6-1, 6-1. Crawford saw trouble in every aspect of the match, but the main issue was inaccuracy on returns — a strength during the dual-match season. The Southeast Region’s Rookie of the Year, Crawford was visibly frustrated for the entirety of his debut match.
Struggles continued on Court 1.
Sophomore Johannes Ingildsen led for most of the first set before he blew a 5-3 lead and eventually lost 7-5. It would be the last lead he would hold. In the second set, Michigan’s Runhao Hua took advantage of the momentum to dominate the second set 6-2 to cap off the straight-set win over the Denmark native.
Despite tough matches in the morning, junior Alfredo Perez reversed a bleak day with an impressive performance in the only afternoon match featuring a Gator player.
In his third-consecutive appearance in the tournament, Perez started strong against Ohio State’s JJ Wolf, winning the first set 6-4. After a rain delay lasted nearly two hours, he picked up right where he left off in the second set with strong serves that flustered Wolf, leading to another 6-4 win to help Perez advance to the round of 32 for the third-straight time.
Perez will play his second singles match on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. as well as a doubles match with his partner, Ingildsen, in their second-consecutive appearance at the championship event. Last season, the pair advanced all the way to the round of 16 and earned All-America honors. This year, the No. 4-seeded duo overall will play Stanford’s Tom Fawcett and Axel Geller. The match is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.
Junior McClain Kessler and freshman Duarte Vale will also take part in the doubles tournament. They will take on TCU’s Guillermo Nuñez and Alex Rybakov for the second time this year at 3:30 p.m. TCU's tandem defeated Kessler and Vale 6-2 on March 14.
Dylan Rudolph is a sports writer. Follow him on Twitter @dyrudolph and contact him at drudolph@alligator.org.
Junior Alfredo Perez (left) was the lone Gator to win his singles match at the NCAA Individual Championships. Sophomore Johannes Ingildsen dropped his match, but will be back in action with Perez in doubles on Thursday.
