A rare individual achievement Friday offered a glimpse into the potential of this year’s experience-laden Blue Devil squad.
No. 5 Duke captured its sixth ACC win of the season Friday, outlasting Notre Dame 5-2 in a dogfight that took nearly four hours to complete. The Blue Devils—playing at home at Ambler Tennis Stadium—benefited from a friendly crowd, but suffered alongside the Fighting Irish as a strong breeze swept across the courts and added an extra element to the afternoon match.
“It was a tough win in tough conditions against a really tough team,” head coach Ramsey Smith said. “Notre Dame made a desperation surge halfway through the singles, and I thought we responded to that. We showed that we were the tougher team.”
The outing also marked a record-setting day for senior captain Jason Tahir, who notched his 100th career singles victory midway through the outing. Tahir, a Rochester, N.Y., native, had an opportunity to clinch the century mark in singles play last week, but was forced to delay the achievement until another day after losing his singles match against Virginia's Ryan Shane.
After falling in doubles Friday, it looked as if Tahir might need to wait again to reach triple-digit singles wins. The senior captain has struggled at times this year to play at the level that he expects of himself. After suffering two losses—one in doubles and one in singles—in his team’s loss to the then-No. 8 Cavaliers last week, it looked as if Friday might spell a repeat performance.
However, when Tahir squared his feet for singles play, it was clear—there would be no more waiting.
The 6-foot-3 senior used a lightning-fast start to blitz past his Notre Dame opponent, Josh Hagar, 6-3 in the first set and 6-2 in the second set. Tahir’s sharpness and aggressive style of play proved the X-factor in the match, overwhelming Hagar on the return end and guiding the Blue Devils (18-3, 6-2 in the ACC) to their first singles win of the day. When Tahir finally walked off the court, he did so to the tune of thunderous applause.
Despite the hype surrounding Tahir’s approach to 100 singles wins, he said that he did not even realize that he had crossed the threshold until after the match.
“I knew it was coming up,” Tahir said. “Actually, I thought it would come sooner, but I have kind of struggled this year. Hopefully I can get a lot more than 100 wins and we can keep getting a lot more team wins.”
In the wake of Friday’s victory, Tahir became the 15th Blue Devil to reach the 100-win mark. Perhaps more impressive, though, is that he is the third active Duke player to claim membership to that elite group.
Teammates Chris Mengel and Raphael Hemmeler each boast more than 100 career singles wins as well. Mengel, a redshirt senior, currently is credited with 104 singles wins. Hemmeler, a senior, has accomplished an even more impressive feat—notching more than 100 singles and doubles wins. Tahir currently boasts 72 doubles wins.
“We have a really strong [senior] class,” Tahir said. “[Having three seniors notch 100 career wins] shows how productive we have been, and it shows that the best is still ahead of us.”
Behind Tahir, three other Blue Devils recorded singles wins Friday. Junior Bruno Semenzato battled Billy Pecor through three sets, mustering two consecutive points late in a third set super tiebreaker to break away from the Notre Dame junior 12-10.
Hemmeler, also needed three sets to win his match. After falling behind early in the third, the Zurich native prevailed in an impressive rally to propel his team to its 5-2 finish. Sophomore TJ Pura took care of business on court six before Hemmeler earned the clinching point, downing his opponent in straight sets to round out Duke’s singles scoring.
The Blue Devils also captured the critical doubles play point to start the match thanks to clutch play from the duo of Semenzato and Pura after junior Josh Levine and Hemmeler easily won their doubles match 8-2. Semenzato and Pura butted heads with the nation’s 17th-ranked player in Quentin Monaghan and his teammate Kenneth Sabacinski, narrowly edging out the Fighting Irish duo 8-6.
Notre Dame (12-8, 4-4 in the ACC) played Duke close throughout the match and threatened to seize control on more than one occasion. However, each time the Fighting Irish made a move, the Blue Devils responded—a trend that Smith attributes to his team’s toughness.
“[When the wind is a factor], no one is going to feel amazing in terms of ball strike,” Smith said. “The game becomes more about toughness and competing. I thought that we were scrappy and did a good job hanging in there [with the Fighting Irish].”
More than just toughness though, Friday’s match gave fans a glimpse of what this Duke team is capable of come May. Tahir’s induction into the 100 wins club speaks to the talent and experience on Smith’s squad. With Hemmeler, Mengel and Tahir leading the way, the Blue Devils have a chance to make a deep postseason run if they continue exhibiting the toughness they showed Friday.
“It’s special,” Smith said about coaching his seniors. “[The seniors] are a special group of guys and its really neat to see them progress year by year. Tahir is a great example of a guy who has just gotten better and better. He has had some tough moments this year, but he has really bounced back when we needed him. We sure needed him today and he did a great job.”
Duke will have little time to recover from its latest match and is back in action at 3 p.m. Saturday at Ambler Tennis Stadium to host Boston College.
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