After taking home multiple titles from their previous tournaments, both the men’s and women’s tennis teams will be competing in ITA tournaments this weekend in Oklahoma and California, respectively.
The men’s team will compete in Tulsa at the ITA All-American Tournament. The competition will run from this Saturday until Oct. 9.
The men’s team finished with five titles from last weekend’s tournaments, four from the Gator Ranked +1 and one from the Ivy-Plus Invitational. Now, the team is preparing to face tough competition, including highly ranked teams like Ohio State and Mississippi State.
Both the Buckeyes and Bulldogs have top-five ranked players competing in the tournament this weekend, including No. 1 Mikael Torpegaard of Ohio State and No. 2 Nuno Borges of Mississippi State.
Last year at the ITA All-American Championship, only seven players represented Florida in the tournament. This year, Florida and Arkansas are tied for having the most participants from an SEC school. Both schools are sending nine athletes to represent the respective universities.
In the singles finals last year, junior Alfredo Perez competed against Petros Chrysochos of Wake Forest and dropped the match 7-5, 6-1. He will look to avenge that loss when he competes in singles play again this year.
In pre-qualifying singles play, senior Jordan Belga will compete with freshman Andy Andrade and sophomore Stephen Madonia on Saturday.
Gators competing in the qualifying singles round starting on Monday include senior Chase Perez-Blanco, junior McClain Kessler, sophomore Johannes Ingildsen and freshmen Duarte Vale and Oliver Crawford.
For qualifying doubles competition, Vale will team up with Crawford and Perez-Blanco will pair up with Andrade. Doubles play will begin on Monday
This tournament will mark Crawford’s first appearance as a Gator after he sat out last weekend with a concussion.
On Thursday, Perez will compete in the main draw for singles and with Ingildsen for doubles.
The women’s team will travel to Pacific Palisades, California, to compete in the Riviera ITA All-American Championships. The competition will run from Saturday to Oct. 8.
Senior Brooke Austin will start in the qualifying rounds for singles on Tuesday, but has an opportunity to move up into the main draw depending on her play. She will also compete with fellow senior Peggy Porter in qualifying doubles play on Tuesday.
Anna Danilina and Josie Kuhlman, also seniors, will represent Florida in the main draw for singles play on Thursday.
It will be a quicker turnaround for Danilina and Kuhlman, as both women competed in pro tournaments in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and Charleston, South Carolina, respectively.
Kuhlman lost to Emily Appleton of Great Britain in the main draw of singles play by a score of 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday in Charleston.
Danilina competed in the quarterfinals of doubles on Thursday with Viktoriya Lushkova of the Ukraine against Vladica Babic of Montengro and Sofia Blanco of Argentina. They won the match with scores of 6-4, 6-7, 10-4 and will compete in the semifinals on Friday.
Neither Victoria Emma nor Katie Kubicz, both freshmen, will compete this weekend.
Standout Gators from the first tournaments of the season have been Vale and Ingildsen from the men’s team and Danilina and Austin from the women’s.
Vale secured two titles (one in singles and the other in doubles) at the Gator Ranked +1 tournament and Ingildsen secured a singles title as well in the same tournament.
Danilina captured the singles and doubles titles in the Hall of Fame/ITA Grass Invitational. Austin finished as the runner-up in the finals match at the Duke Bonk Invite, dropping the match to Duke’s No. 57-ranked Kaitlyn McCarthy.
Both tournaments will help the teams establish more secure ITA rankings as they move further into the fall season.
You can follow Mari Faiello on Twitter @faiello_mari, and contact her at mfaiello@alligator.org.
UF's Alfredo Perez advanced in singles play at the National Fall Championships in Indian Wells, California, with a win over Nicolas Moreno de Alboran of UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday afternoon.
