Duke Advances to ACC Championship Quarterfinals

Thursday, April 23

Cary, N.C.

12:00 PM

Duke University

Miami (First Round)

Duke Advances to ACC Championship Quarterfinals

4/23/2015 4:58:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

CARY, N.C. – Opening up the ACC Championship, the fifth-seeded Duke men's tennis team swept through 12th-seeded Miami, 4-0, on Thursday afternoon at the Cary Tennis Park. The Blue Devils won the doubles point and used victories from sophomore TJ Pura, junior Bruno Semenzato and junior Josh Levine to give head coach Ramsey Smith his 150th career victory.

“I thought we played some good tennis,” Smith said. “Miami is a good team. They battled Virginia last weekend. I thought we did a really good job today. It's great to get a 4-0 win. That was a good start for us.”

Smith is the fourth Blue Devil head coach to reach the 150-win plateau, joining John LeBar (1971-82/184-88 record), Steve Strome (1983-90/160-70) and Jay Lapidus (1991-2008/373-127). Smith's 202 matches to reach 150 wins is the second-fastest span by Duke a coach as Lapidus took 193 matches, Strome 216 and LeBar 236. In Smith's career at Duke, as a player from 1998-2001, as an assistant and associate head coach from 2006-08 and as head coach starting in 2009, the Blue Devils have gone 295-104 (.739 winning percentage) in dual matches.

Duke, ranked No. 9 nationally this week, improved to 22-5 overall while Miami finishes its season 7-17. The Blue Devils' 22 wins are tied for the ninth most in a year in program history. The Blue Devils have also won at least one match in the ACC Championship every year since 2008. The program will play in the quarterfinals Friday and has advanced to the semifinals of the league's main event every year since 2010.

Semenzato remained undefeated in his career in ACC Championship action, improving to 3-0 in both singles and doubles. The singles triumph for Levine was his first at the league tournament while Pura improved to 2-1 in singles at the event.

“I thought it was a great start and first match for us,” Semenzato said. “We should expect to have very, very difficult matches from here on. If we bring out the same energy for each of those, we'll put ourselves in a very good position.”

Against the Hurricanes on Thursday, Duke took the doubles point with 8-4 victories on courts one and two. On court one, senior Jason Tahir and Levine fell behind Henrique Tsukamoto and Piotr Lomacki 3-0 before storming back with eight wins in the final nine games of the set to earn the victory. Tahir and Levine have won nine of their last 10 matches and improved to 17-5 this year, with a 14-5 mark in dual matches.

The Blue Devils finished the point with another 8-4 victory on court two, where Pura and Semenzato defeated Wilfredo Gonzalez and Bernard Tefel. The Duke pair broke for the first of three times in the opening game to take an early 1-0 lead. Pura and Semenzato pushed the lead to 5-1 before Miami responded with three straight wins to narrow the deficit to 5-4. Pura and Semenzato answered by holding on their serve, breaking again and holding to end the match. The two are now 5-4 overall and 4-3 in dual matches.

On court three, the match between senior Raphael Hemmeler and junior Daniel McCall against Nile Clark and Christian Langmo was halted with the Hurricanes leading, 7-6.

“Doubles was good today,” Smith added. “Our team on No. 2 did a really good job. They had great energy. Our No. 1 team got down 3-0, but Miami was playing really well and we weren't rattled by falling behind. We only lost one game after that. They got rolling, which they can do.”

Duke continued to push points in singles, starting with Pura's 6-1, 6-2 victory on court six against Clark. With the first set even at 1-1, Pura went on a five game streak to end the set. In the second set, Pura again went on a run after a 1-1 tie. He won three straight games to go ahead 4-1. Clark got a game back, but Pura broke and held to end the match. Pura lifted his overall record to 19-10 and 14-5 in dual matches.

“TJ really came to play, in doubles and singles,” Smith said. “Him getting off the court early helped us.”

On court three, the Blue Devils made it a 3-0 overall lead as Semenzato downed Tsukamoto, 6-2, 6-3. In the first set, Semenzato recorded an early break to take a 3-0 lead. He pushed the advantage to 4-1 before Tsukamoto got a game back. Semenzato closed the set with consecutive victories, breaking in the last game. It was Tsukamoto who took the early lead in the second set with a break, going up 3-1. Semenzato stormed back with five straight wins to end the set and match. Semenzato is now 29-11 overall and 15-6 in dual action.

Duke closed out the match on court five with a 7-5, 6-2 victory from Levine against Kevin Bondar. Levine opened up a 2-0 lead in the first set, but Bondar came back and tied the set at 2-2. The two were even at 3-3, 4-4 and 5-5 before Levine broke and held to end the set. Levine jumped out to a 4-1 advantage in the second set. Bondar broke to cut the deficit to 4-2, but Levine broke right back and served out for the match. Levine lifted his record to 18-13 this year. He is now 12-8 in dual matches.

“Josh has been really good, especially recently,” Smith said. “He has dealt with some injuries and didn't play singles for a little while. We put him in against Georgia Tech and he won a big match for us there. He obviously won a big one for us today. He's back on track and playing some good tennis for us.”

The other three singles matches were abandoned as the overall match was halted on Duke's clinching point. On court one, #46 Tahir trailed #85 Lomacki, 7-6 (4), 3-5. Hemmeler, ranked No. 70, was behind Langmo, 7-5, 4-4, on court two. The remaining match on court four had redshirt senior Chris Mengel behind Miami's Tefel, 7-5, 2-3.

Duke advances to the quarterfinals of the ACC Championship and will face North Carolina at 12 p.m. ET Friday.

#9 Duke 4 Miami 0
April 23, 2015 at Cary, N.C. (Cary Tennis Park)

Singles competition
1. #85 Piotr Lomacki (UM) led #46 Jason Tahir (DU) 7-6 (4), 3-5 unfinished
2. Christian Langmo (UM) led #70 Raphael Hemmeler (DU) 7-5, 4-4 unfinished
3. Bruno Semenzato (DU) def. Henrique Tsukamoto (UM) 6-2, 6-3
4. Bernard Tefel (UM) led Chris Mengel (DU) 7-5, 2-3 unfinished
5. Josh Levine (DU) def. Kevin Bondar (UM) 7-5, 6-2
6. TJ Pura (DU) def. Nile Clark (UM) 6-1, 6-2

Doubles competition
1. Jason Tahir/Josh Levine (DU) def. Henrique Tsukamoto/Piotr Lomacki (UM) 8-4
2. Bruno Semenzato/TJ Pura. (DU) def. Wilfredo Gonzalez/Bernard Tefel (UM) 8-4
3. Nile Clark/Christian Langmo (UM) led Raphael Hemmeler/Daniel McCall (DU) 7-6

Match Notes
Duke 22-5; National ranking #9
Miami 7-17
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (6,3,5)
ACC Championship First Round