The Blue Devils are now down to only seven players on their roster as the fall season comes to a close in the coming weeks.
In August, the team announced that redshirt senior Nicolas Alvarez, the team's first singles player from last season—who is currently ranked No. 503 in the world—decided to forgo his final year of eligibility to turn professional.
Duke announced Wednesday afternoon that senior Catalin Mateas and the team have agreed to part ways. Mateas is no longer officially on the roster and will not participate in the spring season. His official last day on the roster was Tuesday. In his previous three seasons, Mateas piled up 50 singles wins to accompany 53 doubles victories.
“The coaches and Catalin mutually agreed that it is best for him to leave the team,” head coach Ramsey Smith said in a statement.
Entering this fall, the senior was ranked No. 73 in singles and No. 46 in doubles alongside junior Nick Stachowiak. In this two singles matches, Mateas won the first set before losing the match. In the second, he retired after splitting the first two sets 6-3, 2-6. In his lone doubles match, the duo fell in a deciding third-set super tiebreaker to a Texas pairing.
In Mateas' career, he was named player of the week once in 2017 and earned a spot on All-ACC third team after his sophomore campaign. The two-time ITA All-Academic scholar-athlete played the ladder portion of last season with Alvarez at the top spot doubles spot. On the singles side, Mateas played the majority of his dual matches in the second position.
Mateas was Duke’s top-ranked singles player with Stachowiak coming in at No. 87. The Blue Devils have now lost their top two returning singles players and top doubles team from a season ago as they close out the fall and open the spring slate in January.
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