It’s always a blessing to have one of the best doubles teams in the country, but unfortunately for the Blue Devils, Henrique Cunha and Reid Carleton can’t win a match by themselves.
After losing a hard-fought doubles point against Notre Dame on Sunday, No. 14 Duke (6-1) did manage to win the doubles point against No. 16 Illinois (3-2). But the Illini stormed back in singles action to take the match from the Blue Devils by a score of 4-2 Monday afternoon, handing Duke its first loss of the season.
After Cunha and Carleton picked up an 8-3 victory over Dennis Nevolo and Johnny Hamui, the No. 2 doubles squad composed of senior Jared Pinsky and freshman Fred Saba was dispatched 8-4 by Illinois. In the decisive match, junior David Holland and freshman Chris Mengel then battled to a 7-5 victory in the tiebreaker to win their match 9-8.
In singles, Reid Carleton—the fifth-ranked player in the country—cruised to a straight-set victory over Hamui, but the Illini gave Duke problems lower in the singles lineup. Saba, Pinsky and junior Luke Marchese took just five games each off their opponents as all three lost in straight sets.
The match came to a close as Abe Souza beat Mengel 6-3 in the first set and then rallied from a defeat in the second set to put the freshman on the losing end of a 6-1 third set.
What promised to be the most hotly contested match of the day—No. 9 Cunha against No. 11 Nevolo—was not completed after Illinois clinched the 4-2 victory. Cunha had taken the first set on a tiebreak, but was losing 5-3 to Nevolo in the second before Souza beat Mengel to end the match.
Next up for Duke are VCU Friday and No. 3 Tennessee Saturday at home in Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.
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