Gordon Watson graduated early from Naples First Baptist Academy in December 2011 and was promptly redshirted. After watching Florida compete during his first dual-meet season in 2012, Watson got his chance.
In his first dual meet as a Gator, Watson started and finished the match strong, helping No. 12 Florida (1-0) defeat Miami (1-1) 5-2 on Saturday at Linder Stadium.
“Gordon, I thought, continued his form from [the Three Oaks Shootout on Jan 11-13],” coach Bryan Shelton said. “It seems like he’s getting better each outing. I’m excited about where he’s going with his game. He has an idea about how to play the game now, how to serve his way out of trouble at times, and he’s looking to get forward to the net and make plays.”
Watson got the Gators off to a good start when he teamed up with Billy Federhofer in doubles. With the game at 40-15, Watson returned a shot to the top right corner of Miami’s service box to give Florida its first doubles victory in an 8-1 win against UM’s Omar Aly and William Albanese.
Florent Diep and Michael Alford clinched the doubles point for the Gators four minutes later in an 8-2 win. The final doubles group did not finish due to a new NCAA rule, which only lets the final match play out if both coaches agree.
“We want to play aggressive doubles,” Shelton said. “We’re trying to be very active at the net and make things happen rather than being passive and letting them happen. … That’s our style of play and something we’re just going to continue to work on to get better at as we go along.”
Florida carried its strong start over into singles. Alford grabbed the first point by defeating Aly 6-0, 6-3. Two minutes later, Stephane Piro won 6-3, 6-1 against Miami’s Wilfredo Gonzalez.
Still, Florida needed Watson to secure its first win of the year. After dropping two straight games in the first set, the redshirt freshman regained the lead. Watson went on to beat Miami’s Victor Mauz 6-4, 6-3 to get the final singles point that the Gators needed in a 4-minute time span.
“[Watson has] improved so much from fall,” Alford said. “You expect sometimes for the freshman’s first match to not go well, but it went really smoothly.”
Contact Katie Agostin at kagostin@alligator.org.
Florida redshirt freshman Gordon Watson hits a ball during the Bedford Cup on Sept. 15, 2012, at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.
