TULSA, Okla. — Daniel Valent of the Vanderbilt men’s tennis team made his ITA All-American Championships debut Thursday morning, with the junior falling in a tough battle to Florida’s No. 37 Alfredo Perez.
Ranked No. 21 in the nation, Valent bypassed prequalifying and qualifying rounds to take on his second SEC opponent of the 2016-17 tournament season. The Gator began the round of 64 match breaking serve and holding for the 2-0 advantage. Valent held serve on a huge deuce point, 2-1, but eventually allowed the Florida sophomore the 5-3 advantage.
With Valent down 5-3 and serving on deuce point, the crafty Gator broke serve to earn the upper hand and first set, 6-3.
Perez raced out to take a 5-2 advantage in the second set, however the determined Commodore found a way to fight his way back into the paramount set. After holding then breaking serve, Valent found himself down just one game, 5-4. The junior out of Zurich, Switzerland only allowed Perez one point to tie the second set, 5-all.
With the matchup tied, Perez held serve at a critical time for the 6-5 lead. Now up to serve, Valent was looking to force a second set tiebreaker, but was broken on deuce point for the match, 6-3, 7-5.
Valent will now continue to gain experience in Tulsa by competing in the consolation bracket. The remainder of the Commodore contingent travels to Atlanta this weekend for the Georgia Tech Invitational.
Tournament play begins Friday morning at 8:00 am CT with one round of doubles and three series of singles.
With a field comprised of nine teams, Vanderbilt is one of six SEC teams competing this weekend. Other teams in attendance include host school, Georgia Tech, Miami and Furman.
