Tuesday, current Duke head coach Ramsey Smith signed a top recruit, Henrique Cunha, who had played the juniors tournament at Wimbledon, the most prestigious event in professional tennis.
Friday, former Blue Devil Michael Yani qualified for the real thing.
Yani, Trinity '03 and the No. 253 player in the world, had to go through three rounds of qualifying in order to be entered in the main draw, which includes 128 players. Yani defeated the Nos. 277, 167 and 154 players in the world, and in his final qualifying match against Indian Prakash Amritraj, Yani dropped the first set before taking the last two for the win.
"I had tried to qualify for the US Open and Australia but to go for Wimbledon on grass was something different," Yani said. "I watched it on TV when I was a kid but now I would love to win a match there, it’s a dream come true."
In the main draw, Yani will play No. 102 Simon Greul in the first round, and if he advances, he would likely meet one of the world's top players, fourth seed Novak Djokovic.
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