It was a week of ups and downs for the Blue Devils at the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, Okla.
After competing through five days of qualifiers, Duke sent four players to the main draw of the tournament. Sophomore Michael Redlicki, junior Raphael Hemmeler and senior Fred Saba competed in the singles draw. Hemmeler and sophomore Bruno Semenzato competed in the doubles draw.
Despite getting a large number of players into the main draw, the Blue Devils did not perform as well as they had hoped.
“We had mixed results,” head coach Ramsey Smith said. “We certainly had some good moments, and we had some tougher losses as well. Overall, there was some good and some not so good.”
The highlight of the tournament for Duke was Hemmeler and Semenzato's defeat of the No. 2 ranked doubles team in the nation, Hernus Pieters and Ben Wagland from Georgia, 8-4 in the first round.
“Bruno and [Hemmeler] looked really good in doubles,” Smith said. “Playing together for the first time and beating the No. 2 doubles team in the country was certainly impressive.”
Semenzato carried over his impressive start at the Fab Four Invitational and was the star performer for the Blue Devils throughout the tournament, making it to the final round of the qualifying singles draw along with the strong performance in doubles.
“Bruno’s playing with more confidence than I’ve ever seen,” Smith said. “He’s really finding his rhythm, and he’s really showed us this week that he can play with some of the top players in the country, in both singles and doubles.”
Although Saba, Redlicki and Hemmeler all had good spells of tennis, only Saba was able to make it past the first round of the main draw.
Injuries also played a key role in Duke’s struggles during the week, as several players battled ailments. Junior Jason Tahir was not able to participate in the tournament due to a nagging elbow injury, which caused Duke to have only one doubles team in the main draw instead of the two that originally qualified. Saba struggled through his second match, and Redlicki had to withdraw after going up a set in the consolation round both due to illness. Hemmeler also battled a wrist injury.
“We definitely struggled with some injury and health problems,” Smith said. “Some unfortunate things happened, but there were still some positives.”
Although the results were mixed, the tournament will serve as a learning experience for the Blue Devils as they move forward with the rest of their fall schedule and prepare for the spring.
“It’s certainly a great learning experience, even the matches we lost. I think guys can take away where they need to get better,” said Smith. “It definitely showed that we have a lot to do to get to where we want to be.”
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