Blue Devils Open Strong At ITA Regional

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Thursday, October 16

Cary, N.C.

All Day

Duke University

Day One at ITA Regional Qualifier

Blue Devils Open Strong At ITA Regional

10/16/2014 9:57:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

CARY, N.C. – The Duke men's tennis team turned in a productive first day of the USTA/ITA Carolina Regional on Thursday at the Cary Tennis Park. Only singles action took place Thursday and the Blue Devils recorded 11 victories with four of their seven players advancing to the Round of 32 in the main draw.

Senior Jason Tahir, the No. 4 seed in the draw, downed Gardner-Webb's Nikita Zverkov 6-2, 6-2 to move to the Round of 64, where Tahir topped N.C. State's Ian Dempster 6-0, 6-3. Tahir will face UNC Greensboro's Randy Phillips at 9 a.m. ET Friday in the Round of 32.

Freshman Nicolas Alvarez, the No. 9 seed in the draw, cruised to a 6-0, 6-2 victory against Clemson's Christian Harris in the opening round. Alvarez then downed UNC-Wilmington's Santtu Leskinen 6-0, 6-0 in the Round of 64. Alvarez returns to action at 9 a.m. Friday against N.C. State's Nicky Horton.

Senior Raphael Hemmeler came from behind to down Nicky Kunz of Wake Forest 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the opening round. Hemmeler then faced N.C. State's Beck Bond in the Round of 64 and recorded a 6-2, 6-1 triumph to advance to the Round of 32, where Hemmeler will face N.C. State's Simon Norenius at 9 a.m. Friday.

Sophomore TJ Pura was the final Blue Devil to advance to the Round of 32 as he earned a 6-1, 6-0 victory against Lukas Schaeffer of Campbell and a 7-6 (4), 6-4 victory versus UNC-Wilmington's Xander Veys. Pura will face Wake Forest's Jonathan Ho at 9 a.m. Friday.

Junior Daniel McCall won his first match on Thursday before bowing out of the tournament with a Round of 64 loss. McCall edged Furman's Matt Brown 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2) before falling to UNC-Wilmington's Andres Torres 6-2, 7-6 (5).

Junior Bruno Semenzato, the No. 8 seed, rounded out the Duke winners in the Round of 128 by downing N.C. A&T's Dreshaun Jarmon 6-2, 6-2 before falling to South Carolina's Thiago Pinheiro in a tight match 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (5).

Junior Josh Levine opened the tournament with a setback to N.C. State's Norenius, 6-3, 6-1. In the consolation bracket, Levine topped Brent Lett of Clemson 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to end Levine's competition at the regional.

In addition to the Round of 32 singles action Friday, Duke will send four doubles teams into action with Alvarez-Hemmeler, the No. 4 seed, redshirt senior Cale Hammond-Tahir, Levine-Pura and McCall-Semenzato. None of the pairs have played together yet this fall. All the doubles matches begin at 11:30 a.m. Friday.