Blue Devils Open Fall with Seven Victories

Friday, September 18

Malibu, Calif.

All Day

Duke University

Day One at Oracle/ITA Masters

Blue Devils Open Fall with Seven Victories

9/18/2015 9:03:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

CARY, N.C. – The Duke men's tennis team opened the 2015 fall slate Friday at the Duke James Bonk Invite. The Blue Devils posted four doubles victories and two singles triumphs during the opening day of the tournament. Meanwhile, in Malibu, Calif., sophomore Nicolas Alvarez won his opening round match at the Oracle/Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Masters.

Alvarez was one of 16 players invited to the ITA's prime kickoff event and downed the No. 3 seed in the event, Baylor's Julian Lenz, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4. Alvarez stands No. 7 in the Oracle/ITA preseason rankings while Lenz is No. 4. Alvarez took a closely contested first set from Lenz, 7-5, before dropping the second. In the third, Alvarez jumped ahead to a 2-1 lead and extended it to 5-1 before Lenz closed the gap to 5-3. Alvarez rebounded and closed out the win, advancing to Saturday's 2 p.m. ET quarterfinals against TCU's Guillermo Nunez.

In Cary, Duke began Friday with strong play in doubles, winning four of six matches. In the black draw, freshman Jason Lapidus and sophomore Andrew DeJoy tallied one win. In the opening match, the pair took on Louisville's Courtney Lock and Santiago Salazar and won, 8-3. The pair then faced East Tennessee State's Robert Herrera and Diego Nunez and lost by an 8-3 final. The Blue Devil duo resumes action Saturday at 8 a.m. in the third place match.

The tandem of seniors Josh Levine and Daniel McCall also went 1-1 and will play in the blue draw consolation finals on Saturday. The pair opened against VCU's Vitor Lima and Arvid Noren and fell 8-3. The two bounced back against Old Dominion's Aziz Kijametovic and Jacob Nicolussi, winning 8-4. Duke will take on Sam Bloom and Anthony Delcore of Wake Forest at 8 a.m. Saturday.

In the white draw, freshmen Vincent Lin and Adrian Chamdani turned in the top performance of the day with a 2-0 mark. The pair faced top seed Marko Krickovic and Conner Huertas del Pino of Auburn in the opening round and pulled off the 8-6 upset. The Tiger duo is ranked No. 35 in the Oracle/ITA preseason ledger. Lin and Chamdani then downed N.C. State's Simon Norenius and Nick Horton, 8-5, to advance to the championship, where Duke will face Brett Clark and Robert Kelly of North Carolina Saturday at 8 a.m.

During the afternoon session of singles play, the Blue Devils compiled a 2-3 record in first round action.

In the black draw, Lin took on Herrera and suffered a 6-3, 6-2 setback. Lin will face Old Dominion's Nicolussi in the consolation quarterfinals on Saturday at noon. In the other half of the draw, McCall was handed a tough 2-6, 7-6 (3), 6-3 loss to Wake Forest's Delcore. McCall will face Old Dominion's Michael Weindl on Saturday at noon.

In the blue singles draw, Levine moved to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 7-6 (6) decision against Radford's Janken Thoen. Levine will face the draw's top seed in Krickovic of Auburn on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. Lapidus was in the bottom of the bracket and will play in the consolation quarterfinals after a 6-4, 6-2 loss to Elon's Robert Lindgren. Lapidus faces East Tennessee State's Nunez at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

Rounding out the singles play in the white draw, Chamdani reached the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-0 victory against Lock. Chamdani will face Wake Forest's Bloom in the quarterfinals at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. DeJoy was in the bottom of the bracket and suffered a 6-0, 6-0 decision to Auburn's Dante Saleh and will face Radford's Michiel Meekers in the consolation quarterfinals at noon Saturday.