If there were ever any doubts that Duke is the dominate men's tennis team in this area, its performance at last Saturday's Rolex Region II qualifier settled them.
The draw for the round of 32 read like the Duke media guide, featuring seven Blue Devils, a feat, according to head coach Jay Lapidus, never before accomplished.
"This tournament really showed the depth of our team," Lapidus said. "Just the sheer numbers of it was impressive."
Unfortunately for Lapidus and his team, seven players in the round of 32 failed to translate into any qualifying for the main draw in February, which required an appearance in the final. However, the tournament again proved the solidity of the entire Duke team, something that is not always found on a team that features four freshmen.
"[The Rolex tournament] showed we have a lot of players that can play on the level we have to," Lapidus said.
The highlight of the weekend for Duke was the play of Ramsey Smith.
"Ramsey was the bright spot in the tournament," Lapidus said. "Ramsey really was good, I was really impressed. He fights really hard out there. I'm very, very excited about him."
The unranked freshman ripped through his portion of the draw, highlighted by a come-from-behind 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory over No. 81 Ty Braswell, Atlantic Coast Conference rival Florida State's top player. However, Smith was unable to get past 34th-ranked Daniel Anderson of Virginia Commonwealth, falling 6-4, 7-5, in the tournament semifinals. Though he fell one round short of qualifying, Smith remained confident in his play
"I thought I played real well," he said. "I've worked real hard, and my game is finally coming together."
Doug Root, who as a freshman last year made it all the way to the finals of this tournament, fell in the semifinal round as well. Root's race to the semis featured a pair of three-set victories, including a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 decision over Adam Seri, UNC's top freshman. In the semifinals, however, Root was stopped by the streaking Sam Schroelucke of Furman.
"Doug just ran into a player from Furman who got really hot," Lapidus said.
The other Duke singles players in the tournament-Jordan Wile, Alberto Brause, Dmitry Muzyka and Marco Cerenko-all blew through their opening-round opponents before succumbing later in the tournament.
The three doubles teams brought the team's first-round record to a perfect 10-0. The tandem of Root and Wile dropped Britt and Saunders of UNC, Smith and Andres Pedroso knocked off Vahaly/Montgomery of Virginia and the 11th-ranked team of Muzyka and Sebastian Gobbi slipped past Braswell and Nicks of Florida State in three sets. But then all three teams failed to advance past the second round
With the conclusion of the fall tournament schedule, the Blue Devils are confident and primed to make a run in the spring.
"I'm looking forward to being top in the ACC," Smith said, "and I think we have the opportunity to do real well potentially. We're deep and we've got a lot of good top players, so I think we'll make a run at the national title. I think we have definitely got a shot."
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