Although the rest of the Blue Devils wrapped up play last weekend at the Wake Forest Invite, sophomore sensation Nicolas Alvarez’s fall season is not yet done.
Alvarez has received the ITA Wild Card to the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship, an invite-only tournament featuring some of the nation's top singles players based on their fall performances. The Lima, Peru, native is one of 32 singles players who was invited to compete at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y., where play will begin Thursday.
"We are extremely grateful to the ITA for extending this wild card," Duke head coach Ramsey Smith told GoDuke.com. "Nico is thrilled to have the opportunity to compete in the premiere event of the college fall season. He has been working hard and playing very well, and it will be exciting to watch him battle against the best players in college tennis."
The field for the tournament boasts 25 players listed in the preseason ITA rankings, including Alvarez, who currently stands at No. 7. The draw features several of Alvarez’s past opponents, including TCU’s Cameron Norrie and Virginia Tech’s Joao Monteiro. Alvarez dropped a 6-3, 7-6 (2) decision to the No. 15-ranked Norrie in the finals of the Oracle/ITA Masters in mid-September, and won against the No. 70-ranked Monteiro in the ITA All-American Championships in early October by a score of 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
The tournament consists of all of the ITA regional champions, those who made it at least to the quarterfinals of the ITA All-American Championships, the Oracle/ITA Masters champion, the USTA/ITA Super Bowl champion, two wildcards and two at-large selections to fill out the 32-man field. There are also six competitors who Alvarez and the Blue Devils will face off against in ACC play. Monteiro, Wake Forest’s Skander Mansouri, Virginia’s Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, Notre Dame’s Quentin Monaghan, Georgia Tech’s Christopher Eubanks and Florida State’s Benjamin Lock will all test Duke in the spring.
Alvarez, the tournament’s No. 7 seed, will begin play against Eubanks Thursday at 2 p.m. It will be the first time Alvarez has played against the 6-foot-7 sophomore and could be the first of many matches between the two ACC rivals. If Alvarez wins, he will face the winner of Ohio State’s Herkko Pollanen and Indiana’s Sam Monette Friday.
The National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship will be the third tournament for Alvarez this fall and his last action for the fall season. Alvarez is 4-2 in the fall, with a signature win against Baylor’s Julian Lenz, ranked No. 4, in the Oracle/ITA Masters. Thursday’s tournament offers Alvarez a chance to rebound from his second-round loss in the ITA All-American Championships to Illinois’ Aron Hiltzik.
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Jacob Weiss is a Trinity senior. His column, "not jumping to any conclusions," runs on alternate Fridays.