Duke wrapped up play at the Wake Forest Invite on Sunday with a strong showing across both singles and doubles, finishing the tournament with two doubles flight semifinal appearances and four trips to the singles quarterfinals.
The Blue Devils’ best doubles run came in Flight B, where Yannick Alexandrescou and Jakub Smejcky powered their way into the title match with a pair of wins. They opened by beating Nicholas Carneiro and Nikhil Mukherjee of Davidson, then followed that with a 7-6 (7-3) semifinal victory over Shingo Masuda and Pablo Paternostro of Mercer. Their run ended in the final, where Antonin Witz and Gabe Avram of South Carolina won by injury.
Duke also got a semifinal appearance in Flight E from Dylan Long and Sebastian Eie. The pair defeated Ben Ostheimer and Jack DiMenna of UNC Charlotte, 6-3, in the quarterfinals before falling by the same score to Harrison Lee and Ryan Morgan of James Madison in the next round.
On the singles side, Alexandrescou and Long both reached the Flight 1 quarterfinals. Alexandrescou had a bye in the round of 16 before falling to Wake Forest’s Cornelius Shalmi, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1. Long opened with a 6-2, 7-5 win over South Carolina’s Gabe Avram, but Georgia Southern’s William Mirarchi stopped him in the quarterfinals, 0-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Duke’s other quarterfinal spots came in Flight 2. Eie beat Albert Widell of Georgia Southern, 6-2, 6-2, and Jakub Smejcky topped Charles De Saint Laumer of Georgia Southern by the same score in the round of 16.
Eie then pushed Erwann Bouchet of VCU to three sets before dropping a 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-3 decision. Smejcky advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Cole Thurgur of UNC Charlotte, but later withdrew due to injury after reaching the semifinal round against North Carolina’s Lachlan Gaskell.
In another Flight 1 result, Saahith Jayaraman of Duke fell to South Carolina’s Antonin Witz, 2-6, 7-6 (8-6), injured. Ludvig Hede was also beaten in singles, losing to Gregoire Delattre of Georgia Southern, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, and then falling in Flight 1 consolation play to South Carolina’s Max Stenzer, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).
Duke returns to action Thursday, November 5 at the ITA Sectional Championship in Charlottesville, Virginia.
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Patrick Smith-Young then finished it off with an interception on Virginias final possession, giving Duke a hard-earned finish in a game that could have gone either way. On the hardwood, the Blue Devils kept the momentum rolling by going on the road and beating Kansas 90-84 in an exhibition, with Patrick Ngongba and John Blackwell leading the way as preseason play wrapped up and the regular season drew near. [Read more 🡒]