This weekend, the Blue Devils finally had the majority of their team on the court competing at the same time.
Sunday afternoon, Duke’s time the USTA/ITA Carolina Regional in Cary, N.C., came to an end with two Round of 16 losses. In singles, freshman Adrian Chamdani was eliminated by Wake Forest’s Jonathan Ho, and, in doubles, the freshmen team of Ryan Dickerson and Vincent Lin lost to Furman’s Cameron Green and Adam Steryous. The doubles consolation bracket was cancelled.
For head coach Ramsey Smith, who also directed the tournament, the Carolina Regional was an opportunity to see many of his players in action against quality opponents the Blue Devils will play in the regular season.
“Our goal was to go out there and compete 100 percent,” Smith said. “Really, we just wanted to see where our level is based on what we have done so far.”
Eight of the 10 members of the Duke team competed at the Carolina Regional, with the two exceptions being freshman Catalin Mateas and sophomore Nicolas Alvarez. Four of the eight players who competed for Duke were freshmen—Chamdani, Dickerson, Lin and Jason Lapidus.
“Each [freshman] is a little different,” Smith said. “For Dickerson, this was his first college match ever. He has been out with injuries so it was exciting to see him get to play and compete for the first time wearing a Duke uniform. Basically, we are trying to get better in each tournament for each guy throughout the fall.”
During the opening day of action, Lin—who entered as the No. 7 seed—dropped his opening round matchup Friday against South Carolina’s Harrison O’Keefe, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, but picked up a tight three-set win against USC Upstate’s Ignacio Garrido in the consolation bracket. Dickerson also turned 0-1 into 1-1 on the day, following a two-set loss to Wofford’s Haris Poric with a win in the consolation bracket against Wake Forest’s Sam Bloom. Lapidus snatched a 6-1, 6-2 victory against Winthrop’s Josh Ryan in the first round, but then lost to second-seeded Simon Norenius of N.C. State in straight sets.
Chamdani led the way for the freshmen with wins against Campbell’s Gerard Sola and No. 9 seed Jordi Massalle Ferrer of Charlotte, the latter of whom Chamdani beat in straight sets.
“[Chamdani] was probably our biggest highlight of the tournament,” Smith said. “He made some big jumps and improvements from [the] All-Americans. We have been working really hard on getting a good mindset before each match, as well as his attitude and composure during the match.”
Junior T.J. Pura also advanced through two rounds for the Blue Devils, with straight-set victories against Warren Bryan of UNC Greensboro and Xander Veys of UNC Wilmington. Senior Josh Levine fought his way into the Round of 32 as well, with wins against UNC Greensboro’s Trey Gray and UNC Wilmington’s Josh Hublitz.
Sophomore Andrew DeJoy rounded out Friday's action for Duke after losing to Clemson’s Austin Ansari and Charlotte’s Vikram Hundal. DeJoy was the first Blue Devil eliminated from tournament play.
The seven Duke players still alive in the tournament returned to the court Saturday for more singles action, and all eight players also competed in the doubles bracket. In the singles main draw, Pura fell to N.C. State’s Nick Horton, the No. 13 seed, in straight sets, and Levine lost to North Carolina’s Robert Kelly, the No. 5 seed. Chamdani secured he Blue Devils' lone victory in the main draw, defeating Henry Patton of UNC Asheville, 7-6 (4), 6-3. In the consolation bracket, Duke's two remaining singles players, Dickerson and Lin, were eliminated.
In doubles, the team of Levine and McCall suffered a 6-4, 6-3 loss to Wake Forest’s Romain Bogaerts and Maksim Kan, the No. 8 seed in the draw. The teams of Chamdani and Pura and DeJoy and Lapidus also were eliminated in straight-set decisions. The sixth-seeded pair of Dickerson and Lin, though, captured a 6-1, 6-1 win against N.C. AT&T’s Brett Caban and Kyle Scott.
On Sunday, Chamdani, and the remaining doubles tandem of Dickerson and Lin lost, bringing the tournament to an end for Duke. Chamdani fell 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-4 to Ho, and the team of Dickerson and Lin fell by a score of 7-6 (4), 6-3 to Green and Steryous.
Smith said the Carolina Regional provided him with a good sample for evaluating his team, and helped him decide what Duke needs to work on moving forward.
“At certain points, each [of our players] played well and looked good on the court,” Smith said. "But the overall consistency was not what we needed it to be…. Overall, the tournament showed that we have a lot of work to do, and the good news is that this group is willing to work, and we have a lot of work to do this fall to put ourselves in a good position for the spring season.”
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Jacob Weiss is a Trinity senior. His column, "not jumping to any conclusions," runs on alternate Fridays.