Duke Basketball is used to picking up the best recruits in the country.
Duke Tennis, especially on the men’s side, can’t say the same.
That’s why it was such a surprise when a young Brazilian named Henrique Cunha, a 19-year-old from a small city near São Paulo, announced his committment to the Blue Devils in June.
Cunha was ranked as highly as No. 6 in the world among juniors by the International Tennis Federation last year, and played in the U.S. Open Junior Championships in 2008. Incoming freshmen aren’t eligible for NCAA rankings before they’ve played a match, but if they were, Cunha probably would have been ranked at least as highly as Duke’s top returning player, No. 29 Reid Carleton.
Cunha’s natural talent attracted all the top programs in the country, including UCLA, Virginia and Georgia. He also considered going pro right away. But assistant coach Josh Goffi, who played Davis Cup tennis for Brazil and whose father is from the South American country, said Duke’s less pressure-packed recruiting style brought Cunha into the fold.
“A lot of schools burned their bridges with him because they were all over him, and we recruited him very softly,” Goffi said. “We basically said, ‘This is who we are and this is what we’re about.... If you’re interested, let us know.’ It’s the way we recruit anyway, but he really kind of took to it.”
Still, the Duke coaching staff got a scare late in the recruiting process.
“He was actually on Wikipedia saying he was going to UCLA, saying he was the No. 1 Brazilian player and he was going to UCLA [last spring],” Goffi said. “We were just fired up the guy had a Wikipedia.”
In the end, though, the Blue Devils’ connections to Cunha and to the metropolis of São Paulo helped steer the player to Durham.
Goffi’s father is a well-known tennis coach in Brazil and knows most of the city’s tennis community; those people mentioned Cunha to the Duke coaching staff as an excellent player they had a real shot of getting, and that link “got us in the door,” head coach Ramsey Smith said.
The more personal tie Cunha had with the Blue Devil program was in the form of junior Alain Michel, another São Paulo native who left Brazil to play tennis at Duke. Cunha said he and Michel were friends who had played in many of the same tournaments back home, and Smith and Goffi both acknowledged that Michel’s personal touch was crucial in getting Cunha to commit to the program.
Now that Cunha’s here, Smith and Goffi have nothing but good things to say about their best-ever recruit.
Smith described Cunha’s game as very mature for a 19-year-old, and particularly praised his ball control, return game and position on the court. Cunha’s serve has some room for improvement, especially in his service velocity, Smith said. Once it does, the head coach stated simply, “He’s going to be nasty.”
Asked about his own game, Cunha said he plays very aggressively, and laughed as he said in his native Portuguese, “I’m not Nadal or Federer.” Cunha is lefthanded, and the coaches expect him to be Duke’s No. 1 or No. 2 player as soon as the season begins.
Cunha added that he has developed a very good relationship with Smith, even though the head coach has never been to Brazil, speaks no Portuguese and was not involved in the recruiting process until late on.
“He’s a really good guy, and a very good coach, too,” Cunha said. “It’s different because he’s the coach of the team, [not my personal coach], but I’ve only known him for like three weeks.”
In addition to his obvious talents on the court, Cunha’s dedication to the sport has made his teammates better, Goffi said. Brazilians have a reputation for taking it easy and Cunha embodies that in his off-court demeanor, but on the court is a different story.
“He was always on the pro track, and he has that mentality of, ‘It’s business once I step out in these lines,’” Goffi said. “He takes care of his work, and then he walks really slow, very Carioca [like natives of Rio de Janeiro].
“It takes him an hour to walk from the gym to the courts every day, but once he gets in here, he gets going. I think the guys have a lot of respect for him, and I think it’s gotten the guys tighter and more in shape.”
Off the court, Cunha says he has taken to the Duke lifestyle, although the amount of reading he’s been assigned surprised him—as it does most first-year students.
Cunha understands English well and is improving rapidly at speaking the language, but Goffi, who speaks Portuguese, said his newest player and he often revert to their native tongues on the court.
“We have a deal: He’s supposed to speak in English and I’m supposed to speak in Portuguese,” Goffi said. “That doesn’t really happen, though. He speaks a lot of Portuguese and I speak a lot of English. It works backwards.”
Smith has a similar arrangement with Cunha.
“We have a deal too, where I speak in English and he speaks in English,” Smith said with a laugh.
Duke’s team season doesn’t begin until January, but the Blue Devils are already looking forward to having Cunha in the rotation.
The squad struggled in doubles play last year with a 15-17 record in ACC matches, and Cunha should help remedy that immediately. Smith said the freshman is likely to be partnered with Carleton, the Blue Devils’ top player last season, and together, that tandem could be one of the best doubles teams in the country.
Cunha and Carleton played together in an open tournament involving most of the Triangle’s best college players at UNC several weeks ago. The pair won the tournament easily.
Cunha could shine brightest in singles play, where he figures to be among Duke’s top players. Carleton played No. 1 for the Blue Devils last year but went only 4-6 in conference play against the ACC’s best players. Cunha’s presence could allow Carleton to move down to the second slot, giving Duke a better chance at winning both matches.
If all goes according to plan, Duke’s newest import will settle in immediately and blow away the competition—much like women’s tennis player Mallory Cecil did last year. Cecil helped the Blue Devils to the NCAA team title, won the individual crown as well and went pro just a few months later.
Goffi said Cunha has that same potential, and that if the freshman plays as well as he is capable of, “He might not be in school [for long].”
Of course, an easy transition to a new country, a new language, new academic responsibilities and a different style of tennis is no guarantee. Nonetheless, Cunha seems to have enjoyed his time in Durham thus far.
“I don’t miss Brazil yet,” Cunha said. “I’m good here.”
Duke just hopes he’ll stick around for a while.
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