Although one of the veteran Blue Devils turned in a strong performance during a split weekend, the rest of Duke's players left their weekend invites feeling disappointed as one of the biggest tournaments of the year approaches.
Senior Jason Tahir placed second in the A2 bracket at the Wake Forest Invitational in Winston Salem, N.C., Sunday, falling 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 to top seed Mikelis Libietis of Tennessee after winning three matches on his way to the championship match Friday and Saturday.
But Tahir's performance was the lone bright spot for the Blue Devils this weekend, as redshirt senior Chris Mengel and junior Josh Levine—returning from an injury that kept him out early in the season—struggled at the Wake Forest Invitational and junior Daniel McCall and sophomore T.J. Pura struggled against tough competition at the Battle of the Bay Classic.
The quartet will have to bounce back quickly as the ITA Regional Qualifiers start next weekend in Cary, N.C., with players trying to qualify for the ITA National Indoors Nov. 6-9.
Mengel—who missed last year due to injury—competed in the A1 bracket at the Wake Forest Invitational and got off to a good start, winning his first match 6-3, 6-3 Friday, but dropped a tough three-set match in the quarterfinals against Tennessee's Hunter Reese before withdrawing in his first match of the fifth-place bracket due to injury. His status remains uncertain going forward.
Also competing in the A1 draw, Levine looked rusty in his return to competition, dropping his first match 6-0, 6-2 to Elon's Stefan Fortmann. In the fifth-place bracket, Levine also struggled, dropping his first Saturday match 6-1, 6-2 to UNC Wilmington's Chris Van der Burgh. But the Syosett, N.Y., native finally got in the win column by knocking off Princeton Perry of North Carolina A&T without dropping a game in the 13th-place bracket before dropping his final match of the weekend 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 to Navy's Calvin Mark. Levine finished 14th out of 16 competitors in his bracket.
In San Francisco, Pura and McCall were dominated in their opening-round matches in straight sets. Although McCall recovered from the early setback to notch a 6-1, 6-0 win in the consolation bracket against Boise State's Brendan McClain Saturday, Pura was not as fortunate, falling 7-5, 6-4 against California's Gregory Bayane to end his weekend without a singles victory.
But McCall did not last much longer, as he was thrashed 6-3, 6-2 by UCLA's Austin Rapp in the next round of the consolation bracket.
Although the Blue Devils did not have much success in singles aside from Tahir's strong effort, they gained valuable experience in doubles that could bode well when spring competition intensifies.
Tahir and Mengel went 1-1 in doubles at the Wake Forest Invitational, downing Liberty's Egon Samaii and Jorge Azuero 8-7 (7-3) in a tight match before falling 8-3 to a Georgia State tandem.
In San Francisco, McCall and Pura knocked off UCLA's Rapp and Joseph Di Giulo 8-6 in their opening doubles match before falling to the top seeded California team of Bayane and Andre Gorannson 8-3 Friday.
The duo bounced back Saturday with an 8-6 win against a team from San Francisco to conclude doubles play in the consolation bracket with a 2-1 record for the weekend.
The Blue Devils will look to continue getting matches under their belt and improving individually with the intention of putting solid team performances together when the team-oriented spring season commences, which means that they will keep traveling all across the country as the fall season wears on.
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