Four months ago, freshman Henrique Cunha and junior Reid Carleton had never met each other.
Fast forward to November, and the duo has already established itself as one of the top doubles teams in the country after finishing as the runner-up at the ITA National Indoor Championships, an event they had to qualify for by winning a regional tournament.
“We were just randomly put together at the beginning of the year.” Carleton said. “We didn’t even know each other, but we started off [playing] really well together.”
Really well might be an understatement to describe this duo. During the fall season, Cunha and Carleton went 17-3, won the regional championship and the ITA All-American backdraw title and reached the finals of National Indoors, the fall’s most prestigious event. They became only the second Blue Devil team to ever qualify for the ITA National Championships.
The uniqueness of this doubles team, however, lies in the fact that neither player was a real doubles specialist. Both Cunha and Carleton were significantly more experienced playing singles.
“It’s weird because they both have always been kind of singles oriented,” head coach Ramsey Smith said. “Reid’s an amazing tennis player, but up until this fall he always thought of himself as a singles guy. But he gets paired up with Henrique, who has also pretty much just played singles, but he’s just so talented and so good that he has learned the game of doubles, and Reid has as well.”
Smith was quick to point out, however, the adaptation the players had to make to the new game.
“They won predominant[ly] at the beginning of the fall playing from the baseline,” Smith said. But they won at the end of the fall by being aggressive.”
Cunha reiterated the point, saying that he played little doubles before his experience with Carleton, and due to Smith and assistant coach Josh Goffi, he has seen a vast improvement.
“We started playing [well] because we were good singles players,” Cunha said. “But then we started practicing and we started getting into more doubles skills, and it added to our game and made us a good doubles team…. Now I think I am a much better doubles player because of Ramsey and Josh.”
Going into the spring, the Cunha-Carleton connection will give the Blue Devils something they have sorely missed: an established number one doubles pair. In dual meets in the past, the doubles point has made all the difference for Duke. Last year the Blue Devils went 12-1 when winning it, and only 4-8 when dropping the doubles point. Now that Duke features one of the top doubles teams in the country, the Blue Devils will likely have a better success rate in dual matches.
In addition to their on-the-court contributions, Cunha and Carleton have helped the program off the court. Thanks largely to the success of these two, Duke signed three top American recruits in early November. Two of the recruits are among the top 10 in their class while the other ranks in the top 25, giving the Blue Devils the top incoming class next year.
“I’m really excited about the recruiting class, but I’m really excited about this spring,” Smith said. “We’re going to be a lot better than last year, and these next couple of years we’re going to put ourselves in a position where we’re contending for the ACC title and put ourselves in the mix for the national title.”
While Cunha and Carleton are already taking Duke to the next level, their potential to improve as they continue to play together is even more exciting for the Blue Devils. Of the pair’s three losses this year, two were to senior-led teams and two were in pro-set matches. Given that the two have only played together for a few short months, this doubles team should look even more impressive in the spring.
As for now, Duke finally has a dominant doubles pair. And that could be the first step for the Blue Devils as they try to establish themselves as a national contender.
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