The results of the ITA All-American Championships reflected another successful tournament for the Blue Devils in a fall season full of them.
Senior Reid Carleton was the standout for Duke—reaching the semifinals in both the singles and doubles main draw—in the tournament held last Thursday through Sunday in Tulsa, Okla. His doubles partner, sophomore Henrique Cunha, won his first two matches in the singles main draw before running into the hot hand of eventual winner Alex Domijan of Virginia.
“Overall it was one of the better fall [seasons] we’ve had as a team since I have been here,” head coach Ramsey Smith said. “We [the coaches] have been stressing how important the fall is and we won a lot of matches, and I am really happy with it.”
Carleton scored his first top-ten victory of the year over No. 7 Steve Johnson of USC in the opening singles round, 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-2, and he picked up a decisive 6-2, 6-1 victory over Drew Courtney of Virginia in the quarterfinals. Carleton eventually lost to No. 8 Eric Quigley in the semifinals in a tightly contested match, 6-4, 6-3. The tournament featured the No. 1 singles players from the nation’s top teams, making Carleton’s run even more impressive.
“The best singles college tournament of my career thus far,” Carleton said.
Cunha, the No. 2 seed in the singles draw, won the first two rounds in straight sets before falling to Domijan 6-2, 6-1.
“He [Cunha] beat some very good players the first couple of rounds and just one of those things that he ran into a player that was really hot,” Smith said. “Not a bad loss.”
In doubles, Carleton and Cunha, the No. 1 seed in the draw, cruised into the semifinals to face their Virginia rivals, Drew Courtney and Michael Shabaz, who eliminated Carleton and Cunha in the quarterfinals of last year’s NCAA Tournament before eventually winning it all.
In Saturday’s match, the Blue Devils captured the first set 7-6 after being down two breaks against the big-serving Cavaliers. However, Duke could not build on the momentum and lost the final two sets, 6-4, 6-3.
Nevertheless, Smith remained optimistic after the loss.
“Looking forward to playing those guys again,” Smith said. “It was high level tennis and those guys were right there. I feel really good about how they are playing in doubles.”
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