The second leg of the collegiate grand slam gave the men's tennis team a chance to prove itself. After making some early exits from the National Clay Court Championships, the first leg of the grand slam held earlier this month, Duke bounced back to put a doubles team in the semifinals of the ITA All-American.
Seniors Peter Ayers and Rob Chess paired up to advance to the semifinals of the main draw at the UT-Pennick Allison Tennis Center in Austin, Texas, before finally falling to Roger Peterson and Luke Smith of UNLV.
"[Chess and Ayers] ran into a team in the semifinals that were playing above themselves," head coach Jay Lapidus said. "Every shot [Chess and Ayers] hit the guys [from UNLV] came up with a better one . . . It was a good tournament for them."
The doubles duo picked up a first-round victory over Ernesto Diaz and Alvin Poloryi from Boise State in three sets, but cruised to a second-round win over Tennessee's Chris Mahony and Pablo Montana, 6-3, 7-6.
"Based on their results, [Chess and Ayers] should be in the top five," Lapidus said. "They survived a couple of tough matches."
Both Blue Devils also competed in the singles portion of the All-American. Ayers started in the qualifying round, but he was ousted in the first round by Montana, 7-6, 7-4.
"I thought Pete had a chance to do well, but [Montana] got to the semifinals of the clay courts, and he'll probably be ranked in the top 10 in the country," Lapidus said. "It was really a tough tournament. He had eight set points in the first set, but couldn't pull it off. Pete had one of the toughest draws, so it's kind of unfortunate for him."
Chess, due to his national ranking of No. 22 in the preseason, entered the All-American in the main draw. He downed No. 9 Pedro Braga in the opening round, 6-3, 7-6. Despite being up early, Chess could not pull out a second-round victory.
"He faced Ryan Wolters, a freshman from Stanford, and was up a set and three-love," Lapidus said. "[Chess] had match point in the second set.
"Wolters was almost destined [to win]. The guy came up with really good shots. Rob learned a little bit. When he's got a guy down, he's got to work on putting the finishing touches on it. The other guy came up with some great shots."
Wolters kept coming up with those great shots throughout the tournament, as he captured the singles title on Sunday, beating Peterson, 6-4, 6-2.
Although Chess was defeated early, Lapidus feels that his play is almost good enough to rank him among the top players nationally.
"Rob is just a hair away from winning one of these tournaments or doing really well," Lapidus said. "His fall went well. He's setting himself up to be ranked between 10 and 15 after the fall."
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