Duke men’s tennis shined in the fall’s biggest event yet.
At the ITA Sectional Championship in Chapel Hill — the last qualifying tournament for the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships in Waco, Texas, later this month — the Blue Devils punched two tickets to the event.
High-profile transfer Cooper Williams qualified for the NCAA Singles Championship after winning three straight-set matches. Then Williams teamed up with Theo Winegar, the Blue Devils’ doubles-specialist and transfer from Columbia, and won the doubles bracket to earn a bid as a pair.
Williams had previously failed to qualify for the coveted tournament. As the No. 1 overall seed at ITA Regionals, he lost in the Round of 16 against Martin Borisiouk from N.C. State. He also fell in the Round of 32 at the ITA All-American Championships in September. Therefore, this was his last chance, and he showcased impressive tennis in Chapel Hill against high-level opponents.
“[Williams has] definitely gotten better with every single tournament. It took a little bit of time for him to find his range,” head coach Ramsey Smith said. “I thought mentally he was an absolute rock, he handled adversely extremely well.”
The reigning ITA Rookie of the Year from Harvard started by winning his first two rounds versus Ivy League competition, finishing off Yale’s Krish Gupta, 6-2, 6-4, and Nathan Mao of Cornell, 6-2, 6-3.
In the quarterfinals, the sophomore faced his toughest test yet, lining up against Ioannis Xilas — who had come off a Davis Cup appearance representing Greece on the world stage.
Williams was not fazed, and despite being down a break in the first, he roared back to a 7-5 first-set victory. The second was more routine, as the Blue Devil won 6-3 to officially qualify for the NCAA Singles Championships.
“He just kind of has this about him where he seems to rise to the occasion in the big moments,” Smith said. “He won all his matches in straight sets, but they weren't all as one sided as they look.”
In the doubles ranks, Williams and Winegar worked their way through the draw of some of the best doubles teams in the East. After three wins — against tandems from Cornell, Virginia and North Carolina, respectively — they faced the No. 4-seed Dhakshinewswar Suresh and Xilas of Wake Forest.
Suresh and Xilas withdrew as both tandems automatically qualified, so Williams and Winegar were crowned champions.
Although Winegar nearly earned a bid for the NCAA Doubles Championships at ITA Regionals while teamed up with Sam Landau, the pair fell in a tiebreak in the semifinal rounds.
But this time around, Winegar and Williams left no doubt. Against the Cavaliers, Duke’s bunch faced a 3-0 deficit in the opening set, but fought back with elite shotmaking to win.
“[Winegar’s] net game, his positioning and ability to just put away volleys is better than anyone I've ever seen. It's something that he just works on every single day,” Smith said.
Elsewhere in doubles, Spaniards Pedro Rodenas and Gerard Planelles Ripoll fell in the first round in a third-set tiebreak to Nicolas Kotzen and Max Westphal of Columbia. However, Rodenas already earned a bid for the NCAA Singles Championships last month at ITA Regionals.
“It’s great to have three players through, and I think it's important for a program that we're represented at the highest level,” Smith said.
Rodenas, Williams and Winegar will compete in the NCAA Championships beginning Nov. 19, the first year that it is in the fall rather than in May. All three players have previously competed at this tournament, and will look to cement Duke’s name on the national stage before the spring.
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Ranjan Jindal is a Trinity junior and sports editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.