Despite dozens of players competing this weekend, somehow it was two Blue Devils who ended up meeting in their final match Sunday.
Duke had several strong performances in the last tournament of the fall for everyone except sophomore Nico Alvarez at the Wake Forest Invite at the Wake Forest Tennis Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. But the most intriguing part of the weekend came when teammates T.J. Pura and Vincent Lin faced each other in the consolation final of the A1 singles bracket. Pura topped his fellow Blue Devil 5-7, 7-6 (1), 1-0 (8) in a rare meeting of players from the same school.
“It doesn’t happen all the time, but it’s nice when it happens late in rounds,” Duke head coach Ramsey Smith said. “It’s always a little bit awkward playing a teammate, but I thought both guys handled it well. It was an extremely competitive match and T.J. just edged him out.”
Despite falling to Pura, Lin had the marquee victory of the tournament and of his college career, defeating Wake Forest’s Romain Bogaerts—an All-American and the No. 11 player in the nation—6-4, 6-3 Saturday.
The win capped off a strong fall slate for Lin, who posted an 8-6 record.
“He beat the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament,” Smith said. “It was really a breakthrough win for Vincent and something that I think is going to give him a lot of confidence. Even though he lost to T.J. today, he had a very good tournament and has showed a lot of promise this fall.”
Pura’s victory against Lin was not his only triumph Sunday, as he and freshman Jason Lapidus also claimed a third-place finish in the B1 doubles bracket.
Considering it was the first tournament that the pair played in doubles together, coming in third place was a good sign and capped off an impressive tournament for Pura.
“This was one of T.J.’s best tournament of his college career,” Smith said.
Pura and Lapidus were not the only Blue Devils to get a third-place finish. Senior Josh Levine also came in third in the B2 singles bracket after the Syosset, N.Y., native defeated Tennessee Tech’s Alberto Escobar 7-5, 6-2.
The victory was an important result for Levine—one of two seniors on Duke’s roster—as he will be one of the key members and leaders for this young Blue Devil squad.
“Josh was definitely a highlight of the weekend,” Smith said. “He lost in the semifinals 7-6 in the third [set] to the player who won it, and then he bounced back today and won a great match. He’s been working really hard this fall and things are coming together.”
Elsewhere in singles, freshman Ryan Dickerson fell to Dartmouth’s Roko Glasnovic 6-4, 7-5 in the 11th place match of the A2 flight. Freshman Adrian Chamdani finished 15th in the same flight, topping Radford’s Janken Thoen 6-3, 7-5. Senior Daniel McCall, sophomore Andrew DeJoy and Lapidus also finished their fall seasons with losses.
On the doubles side of the tournament, the freshman pairing of Lin and Catalin Mateas rebounded after two losses to take seventh place in the A1 bracket, defeating Davidson’s David Hager and Shamael Chaudry, 8-5.
The victory capped off Mateas’ first tournament with Duke after missing the beginning of the season with a back injury.
“Considering the circumstances, he played some very good tennis,” Smith said. “It was important for him to play this [tournament] just to get the blood flowing and get that feel of a college tennis environment.... As a team we’re still raw. We’re still trying to find our way. I think we’re on the right track and we have a bunch of guys that really like to work. We clearly have some important things to work on. I think where we are and I think we’re heading in the right direction.”
Alvarez with officially close out Duke’s fall slate next Thursday at the ITA National Indoors in Flushing, N.Y.
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