Duke sophomore and top seed Phillip King, as well as juniors Michael Yani and Yorke Allen competed in the ITA All-American Championships held in Stone Mountain, Ga. this past week. The championships frequently field the strongest crop of players from around the nation.
"This is the biggest tournament of the fall season," Yani said. "The main thing this tournament does is set the rankings for a good part of the year."
King was the ITA National Freshman of the Year last season and is ranked second in the preseason singles rankings. He was in the main draw in singles, which began Thursday. In the opening round, King defeated Sebastian Rutka of Louisiana State, 6-3, 6-3.
In the second round the Duke sophomore took out Robert Gustafsson of Middle Tennessee State, 7-6, 6-3. But in the third round, King was not as successful, suffering a 6-1, 7-6 loss to ninth-seeded Michael Kogan of Tulane.
"Whenever you're the No. 1 seed, people just play well against you," King said. "They go for a lot of shots. Sometimes it just happens to fall that way."
Meanwhile, in the opening singles round, Yani defeated Javier Taborga, Notre Dame's top player, by winning the first set, 7-6, in a 7-4 tiebreaker. Yani then claimed the second set, 6-4. In the final qualifying round, he suffered a 6-3, 6-2 loss to a very experienced Benjamin Becker of Baylor.
"I never really felt my rhythm," Yani said. "I think he ended up winning two or three rounds in the main draw."
Yani and teammate King also participated in doubles play. The duo was eliminated by Becker and Marcus Hornung, 9-8. The loss finished their appearances at the Championships.
"I think [the loss stemmed from] a lack of practice from Phillip and I," Yani said. "It was our first real match and an eight-game pro set at that. Usually, they will play a best two out of three, so it was pretty hard to get something going."
Allen represented Duke in singles competition as well, winning the first round of prequalifying against Ohio State's Brenton Contini in straight set, 6-3, 6-2. However, in the second round, Allen was knocked out of the tournament by Juan Cerda of San Diego, 2-6, 6-1, 7-6.
Allen and his teammates were impressed with the high level of competition that they faced throughout the duration of the tournament.
"I hate to lose, but it's not the end of the world," King said. "By the time the regular season rolls around, we'll be fine."
Yani echoed his statement.
"This is kind of a tune-up for the regular season," he said. "When we start playing dual matches, it's going to be a whole different story. We're going to be a lot more fired up."
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