The UF men’s tennis team finished up Fall competition strong on Nov. 6.
Yet, its offseason hasn’t been quiet.
The team gained commitments from three highly touted recruits who will arrive on campus for the Fall 2017 season.
Andy Andrade is one of them and comes from Bradenton’s IMG Academy.
Andrade has been ranked as high as No. 12 in his class, according to Tennisrecruiting.net.
He holds a career 20-5 record in ITF doubles action with five doubles titles, including the 2015 Grade 1 Prince George’s County International Hard Court Junior Tennis Championship.
Duarte Vale trains with Andrade in Bradenton.
However, he hails from Cascais, Portugal.
Aside from competing with Andrade in doubles, Vale competed in three of four Junior Grand Slams this year (French Open, Wimbledon, US Open).
Vale also led his nation to the finals of the 2016 European Summer Cup as Portugal’s No. 1.
Oliver Crawford is the final member of the trio and competed in the same three Junior Grand Slams as Vale in 2016.
The South Carolina native ranks first in his home state in recruiting and fifth nationally with an ITF ranking of 31.
While none of those recruits will be available until the 2017-18 season, the Gators nevertheless enter the Spring season with momentum from strong performances that came at the end of 2016.
The doubles pair of Alfredo Perez and Johannes Ingildsen were bounced from the doubles tournament in the round of 16 at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships in Flushing, NY, placing them into the doubles consolation bracket. Perez and Ingildsen proceeded to win the consolation bracket and defeated the tournament’s fourth-seeded duo of Cash/Kahde from Oklahoma State in the finals.
Another standout performance came from Maxx Lipman at the Lakewood Ranch Dick Vitale Intercollegiate Clay Court Classic.
Lipman and doubles partner Stephen Madonia entered the tournament as second-seeded partnership but were eliminated in the quarterfinals.
However, on his own, Lipman advanced to the quarterfinals of the singles bracket where he was eliminated in a three-set match against the tournament’s No. 4 seed, Robert Levine of Duke University.
The team’s first action of its Spring season starts today in Plantation, where 10 Florida athletes will compete in the USA F3 Futures Pro Circuit tournament.
However, UF's first home matchup will come against Georgia Southern on January 21 at the Ring Tennis Complex and begins at 10 a.m.
Contact Mark Stine at mstine@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @mstinejr.
Maxx Lipman returns a serve during Florida's 6-1 win over Troy on Jan. 17, 2016, at the Ring Tennis Complex.
