Deep in the heart of Texas, having seen all the members of his posse snipped off early, Duke senior Ramsey Smith tried to smoke the remaining competition.
Nevertheless, after all the shots had been fired, Smith suffered the same fate as the rest of his teammates in the semifinals of this year's installment of the men's tennis Rolex National Indoor Championships.
"[Even] though we didn't have anyone go to the finals, I felt that our guys played a great tournament," assistant coach Dave Hagymas said. "This tournament is the toughest of the year, even tougher than the NCAA Championships because each player has to earn his way in. For us to have three guys playing singles out there is great."
As Smith enjoyed his success at the Brookhaven Country Club in Farmers Branch, Texas, the other two Blue Devil singles players, seniors Marko Cerenko and Andres Pedroso, did not live up to their own lofty personal expectations.
Cerenko came into the tournament as the second-seeded singles player in the nation. He left two matches later after a bruising 6-7, 7-5, 6-3 defeat at the hands of Georgia's Lesley Joseph.
"I was definitely disappointed because I felt I could have played better," Cerenko said. "If a couple things would have happened, I could have gone farther. Then again, I played some tough competition, and I was just happy to compete."
Also slightly disheartening considering his previous victory in the ACC men's indoor championships, Pedroso fell in the first round, 7-6, 2-6, 6-1, to Stanford's K.J. Hippensteel. Pedroso had been trying to recover from a back injury which forced him to sit out the singles draw of the previous weekend's adidas College Invitational.
After his early loss this weekend, Pedroso played the remainder of his matches in the consolation bracket, where he advanced to the quarterfinals.
"It is such a strong tournament," said Cerenko, who will likely play No. 3 singles for Duke. "With all the top players in the country there, every match is really tough. It is a good marker for the rest of the season because you, at least individually, are not going to win every match. It is a good dose of reality."
Amidst the rubble left by his teammates, Smith emerged as Duke's lone star of the weekend. Before falling to last year's national champion, Stanford's Alex Kim, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals, Smith had compiled several standout victories. In the first round, he thumped Andy Leber of Texas-Arlington, 6-2, 6-4, and in his subsequent contest, he handed the tournament's third-seed, Georgia's Matias Boecker, a straight-set loss. In his quarterfinal match, Smith finally had to battle to move on, a task which he completed with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory over San Diego State's Valentino Post.
"He's playing really well," Hagymas said. "He barely lost to one of the best players in the country, and he did not play his absolute best. When he's on and playing well, there aren't too many people who can beat him."
In doubles play, the team of Blue Devil seniors Pedroso and Ted Rueger fell in the second round in straight sets to the Bulldogs' coupling of Boecker and Travis Parrett.
After a trying journey to Texas, the Blue Devils will look to release some frustration on their upcoming competition. Duke opens the team competition end of its spring season this week.
"We can go a long way this season," Cerenko said. "We will win conference and we'll play from there."
"I have high hopes," Hagymas added. "I feel that this is the strongest all-around team that we have ever fielded."
The squad's first challenge will come at home Wednesday against perennial whipping boy William & Mary, a team that does not inspire any degree of fear in the Blue Devils.
"They should give us a nice warm up," Cerenko said. "It's more of a get-you-ready match than anything else."
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