With two dominating wins in the rearview, the real fun starts now for Duke—it’s ITA season.
Fresh off a 7-0 sweep of Michigan State, and a 5-2 win in Lexington, Ky., against the Wildcats during Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, the Blue Devils look to kick off the men’s ITA season against No. 20 Wake Forest Friday. The match will be played at 1:30 p.m. at Duke’s Sheffield Tennis center. The Blue Devils will then play either Memphis or Clemson the following day, also in Durham, as part of the ITA tournament kick-off weekend.
“Going into a match [against an opponent like Wake Forest], it was really important to get those first two wins under our belt,” head coach Ramsey Smith said. “It gave our guys a really good chance to get some solid singles and doubles play before [the ITA Kick-Off]. I think our guys are feeling confident, and [Wake Forest] is a really good team. I am excited for the challenge.”
The Demon Deacons (2-0, 0-0 in the ACC) have recorded wins this season against unranked Charlotte and unranked East Tennessee State University, both by a score of 7-2. Wake Forest features three ranked players—No. 12 Romain Bogaerts, who will most likely be starting at No. 1 singles against Duke, No. 52 Jonathan Ho and No. 102 Maksim Kan. However, there is a chance that Wake Forest starts Noah Rubin in the No. 1 singles position instead, like it did against ETSU, to take advantage of match-ups.
“Their top two singles players, have done very well,” Smith said. “They play big and aggressive tennis.”
Besides Bogaerts and Rubin, Duke (2-0, 0-0) will be challenged by Wake Forest’s doubles teams, which have won three of four against each of their past two opponents this season. Against Charleston, the Demon Deacons started the teams of Christian Seraphin and Skander Mansouri, Rubin and Ho, Bogaerts and Kan and Keivon Tabrizi and Sam Bloom.
Although the lineups for each team have not yet been set, it is likely that Nicolas Alvarez, Jason Tahir, Raphael Hemmler and Bruno Semenzato will start for the Blue Devils in the singles line-up, and Rubin, Bogaerts, Ho and Mansouri will start for Wake Forest.
In doubles, Alvarez and Hemmeler, Tahir and Josh Levine and Chris Mengel and Semenzato seem like likely doubles pairs for Duke. Mengel—a redshirt senior who missed the entirety of last season after he underwent major reconstructive shoulder surgery—earned the match-clinching point for the Blue Devils against Kentucky Monday in the No. 5 singles spot in a 6-3, 6-4 victory against Trey Yates.
“[Mengel] is a big part of our season this year,” Smith said, “He just went through major shoulder surgery, and, [against Michigan State], he played his first match for Duke in 21 months, which he won. He has put in a lot of work and sweat and rehab to get back to where he needs to be. The most important thing is that he is feeling healthy, and he is going to be a big factor for our success this year.”
The Blue Devils will face the winner of the match between Memphis and Clemson Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Memphis most recently competed in the Illini Invite at Ft. Myer’s, Fla., where the Tigers went a collective 7-16 in singles and doubles play against No. 11 Illinois.
Memphis features No. 23 Andrew Watson and No. 79 Connor Glennon as the only two ranked players on its roster. Clemson, on the other hand, has notched a pair of 7-0 wins against Winthrop and Davidson, and features No. 69 Hunter Harrington as the team’s only ranked player. Clemson is ranked No. 22 in the country, while Memphis is ranked No. 23.
The Duke, Memphis, Clemson and Wake Forest group is one of 15 groups of four that will be kicking off the ITA season with a tournament. The ITA season will continue for Duke from Friday until Thursday, April 23, when the ACC Championships will take place in Cary, N.C. The ITA season and its rankings will play an important role for the Blue Devils come the start of the NCAA Championship May 14 in Waco, Texas.
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Jacob Weiss is a Trinity senior. His column, "not jumping to any conclusions," runs on alternate Fridays.