
Men?s Tennis Set for Main Draw at ITA All-American
10/5/2011 10:05:00 PM | Men's Tennis
The tandem of freshman Raphael Hemmeler and sophomore Fred Saba began the day with an 8-6 victory over BYU's Francis Sargeant and Spencer Smith in the third round. The two then advanced to the final of the qualifying stage, where they suffered an 8-6 setback to David O'Hare and Joe Salisbury of Memphis to just miss qualifying for the tournament's main draw.
Seniors Luke Marchese and Torsten Wietoska also saw action in doubles play Wednesday, where they faced Nick Chappell and Orlando Superlano of TCU in the third round. Chappell and Superlano ended the Duke duo's run, defeating Marchese and Wietoska, 8-5.
Two more Blue Devils are set to take the court Thursday, as the main draw of the tournament gets underway after five days of pre-qualifying and qualifying play.
Sophomore Chris Mengel earned an automatic bid to the main draw, where he will kick off the action for Duke in a 9 a.m. EST matchup against 51st-ranked Clifford Marsland of Tulsa. Mengel is ranked No. 49 on the ITA's preseason list. Junior Henrique Cunha also received an automatic bid to the main draw of the singles tournament, as well as the No. 3 seed in the bracket. Cunha, who is listed fourth in the ITA's preseason rankings, will face 15th-ranked Ray Sarmiento of USC at 11:30 a.m.
Mengel and Cunha will also team up in doubles play, where they are slated to face 26th-ranked Andreas Mies and Alex Stamchev of Auburn in a 7 p.m. match. As a tandem, Mengel and Cunha are ranked 15th on the ITA's preseason list, and have compiled a record of 1-1 so far during the fall season.
The main draw of singles and doubles play at the ITA All-American Championships begins on Thursday Oct. 6 and runs through Sunday, Oct. 9.
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