Duke Downs Miami, 6-1

Sunday, March 15

Durham, N.C.

12:00 PM

Duke University

Miami

3/15/2015 4:21:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. – Playing its first outdoor match of the 2015 campaign, the No. 6 Duke men's tennis team cruised to a 6-1 victory against Miami on Sunday inside Ambler Tennis Stadium. The Blue Devils were led by redshirt senior Chris Mengel, who moved into ninth place on the Duke all-time singles wins chart, and senior Raphael Hemmeler, who climbed to fifth on the program's career doubles triumphs list.

The victory evened Duke's ACC record at 1-1 and pushed its overall mark to 14-2, tied with the 1977, 1988 and 2005 teams for the best 16-match record in program history. The Blue Devils have not lost consecutive ACC matches since April 3 and 5, 2009. Duke has also lost just once in its last 14 home outdoor matches.

“We wanted to work really hard this week, which we did, and make some improvements,” head coach Ramsey Smith said. “I thought overall it was a really good day. Miami is a very solid team and they pushed us in some spots. I'm happy to get the win.

“We had a lot of time to work [this week]. I thought we got in a little better shape and got a lot of good tennis in. I felt we were really prepared. It was just nice to get outside and get our first outdoor match under our belt.”

Individually, Mengel earned the 104th singles victory of his career, the ninth most in program history. Mengel's win was also his 27th in ACC action, tied for the seventh most on the Duke all-time chart. Hemmeler's doubles triumph was the 109th of his career, moving him ahead of Jordan Wile (1996-99) and into fifth in Duke history. Hemmeler also slid into a tie for fifth on the program charts with his 26th career ACC doubles victory. Hemmeler's singles victory was the 105th of his career, the eighth most in program history.

“Guys were really hungry coming back from Virginia Tech [last Sunday],” senior Jason Tahir said. “We're excited to move forward and keep playing ACC matches.”

Duke earned the doubles point for the 13th time in 16 matches Sunday afternoon. It was the court three team of Hemmeler and sophomore TJ Pura that got Duke off on the right foot, downing Miami's Bernard Tefel and Andrew Harrington 8-3. The teams were even at 2-2 before Duke inched out to a 4-2 advantage. The Hurricanes narrowed it to a 4-3 deficit before the Blue Devils ripped off four consecutive victories to end the set. Hemmeler and Pura are 3-0 playing together this spring.

On court two, Duke took a similar 8-3 decision as Mengel and junior Bruno Semenzato topped Miami's Wilfredo Gonzalez and Kevin Bondar to secure the doubles point. Gonzalez and Bondar led 2-1 and 3-2 before the Blue Devils captured the final six games to take the set. Mengel and Semenzato improved to 9-2 in dual matches, and are 3-0 when playing in the No. 2 slot.

Miami's Nile Clark and Piotr Lomacki led Tahir and junior Josh Levine 7-2 on court one when the match was halted.

In singles, it was Pura who gave Duke a 2-0 overall lead as he coasted to a 6-1, 6-2 victory on court six against Alexander Fahnehjelm. Pura dropped the first game of the opening set and then won eight consecutive games to take the initial set and jump out to a 2-0 lead in the second. Fahnehjelm answered to tie the second set at 2-2, but Pura strung together four more wins to end the match. Pura improved to 6-2 in dual matches this spring.

Miami earned its only point of the day to cut it to a 2-1 deficit with a win on court five, where Clark downed Levine 6-3, 6-0. Levine jumped out to a 2-0 advantage in the opening set, but Clark answered with six wins in the last seven games to earn the win. Clark breezed through the second set as Levine dropped to 8-4 in dual matches.

Seconds later, Duke regained its two-point lead at 3-1 overall when Hemmeler defeated Christian Langmo, 6-3, 6-3, on court two. Hemmeler took a 3-0 lead in the opening set before Langmo narrowed the gap to 4-2. Hemmeler remained on serve and won two of the last three games to close out the set. In the second set, Hemmeler led 2-0 before Langmo won three consecutive games to go up 3-2. Hemmeler answered with four straight wins to end the match. Hemmeler improved to 11-3 in dual matches and won his first career match at No. 2 singles.

The Blue Devils clinched the match and made it a 4-1 advantage on a Mengel 6-4, 6-1 victory against Niclas Genovese on court four. After dropping the first game of the set, Mengel won five consecutive games to take a 5-1 lead, only to have Genovese capture three straight to make it a 5-4 Mengel lead. Mengel served out for the win in the opening set. Mengel upped his record in dual matches to 10-1 this spring.

Duke made it a 5-1 overall lead after Tahir and Lomacki went back-and-forth for three sets on court one before Tahir pulled out the narrow 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1) victory. Lomacki, ranked No. 76 in the latest ITA poll, jumped out to a 3-0 advantage in the first set, only to have No. 34 Tahir cut it to a 3-2 lead. Lomacki responded with three consecutive wins to end the set. In the second set Tahir had the answer late as he earned a break tied 3-3 to go up 4-3 and won the next two games to take the set. Lomacki had the early lead in the third set at 3-1, but Tahir rallied again to force a 4-4 tie. Lomacki recorded a break to go up 5-4, but Tahir held again to force a 5-5 tie. The two then held serve to force the tiebreaker. Tahir fell behind 1-0 in the tiebreaker but then won seven consecutive points to seal the win. Tahir upped his record to 6-7 in dual matches and picked up his fifth victory against a ranked foe this year.

“I started off pretty slow mentally, but I just tried to work my way into it and give myself a chance to play better,” Tahir said. “Thankfully I played very well down in the set. When he served for the match, I played a really good game to break. I really needed to play better and found a way to get a win.”

The Blue Devils closed the match on court three with a straight-set victory from Semenzato, who defeated Gonzalez 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5). Gonzalez took a seemingly commanding 4-0 lead in the first set but Semenzato answered with four straight wins of his own to even the set. With the set tied at 5-5, Semenzato broke to take a 6-5 lead only to have Gonzalez break back and push the set to the tiebreaker, which Semenzato won 7-3. Gonzalez took another sizable lead in the second set at 3-1. Semenzato stormed back to force a 4-4 tie and take a 5-4 advantage. The two remained on serve for the remainder of the set and went to the tiebreaker again. Gonzalez held 2-1 and 3-2 leads in the tiebreaker before Semenzato evened it at 3-3 and again at 4-4. Semenzato then won three of the next four points to secure the win and lift his overall record to 7-3 in dual matches with a 2-1 mark on court three.

“I was really happy with the last two matches and to get those wins,” Smith added. “We win the dual match either way, but we could have easily lost those two matches. For Jason and Bruno, it gives them all the more confidence to push through at the end. They did a good job staying focused even though the match was already clinched. I'm proud of both those guys.”

Duke returns to action Friday at 3 p.m. ET inside Ambler Tennis Stadium versus rival NC State.

#6 Duke 6, Miami 1
March 15, 2015 at Durham, N.C. (Ambler Tennis Stadium)

Singles competition
1. #34 Jason Tahir (DU) def. #76 Piotr Lomacki (UM) 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1)
2. Raphael Hemmeler (DU) def. Christian Langmo (UM) 6-3, 6-3
3. Bruno Semenzato (DU) def. Wilfredo Gonzalez (UM) 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5)
4. Chris Mengel (DU) def. Niclas Genovese (UM) 6-4, 6-1
5. Nile Clark (UM) def. Josh Levine (DU) 6-3, 6-0
6. TJ Pura (DU) def. Alexander Fahnehjelm (UM) 6-1, 6-2

Doubles competition
1. Nile Clark/Piotr Lomacki (UM) led Jason Tahir/Josh Levine (DU) 7-2
2. Chris Mengel/Bruno Semenzato (DU) def. Wilfredo Gonzalez/Kevin Bondar (UM) 8-3
3. Raphael Hemmeler/TJ Pura (DU) def. Bernard Tefel/Andrew Harrington (UM) 8-3