Carleton & Cunha Advance to ITA Carolina Regional Finals

DURHAM, N.C. - Duke's No. 1-ranked doubles team of Reid Carleton and Henrique will be looking to repeat as ITA Carolina Regional champions as they won on Saturday to advance to the finals.

The Blue Devils were going to have a doubles team in the finals no matter what happened on Saturday as Carleton and Cunha faced two of their teammates, Jared Pinsky and Fred Saba, in the semifinals. In a close match, Carleton and Cunha prevailed, 8-5, to move on for a chance to win the title for the second straight year.

The finals will feature the top two seeds in the tournament as the top-ranked duo from Duke will take on the No. 2 seed Joey Burkhardt and Jose Hernandez of North Carolina. The two Blue Devils are now 10-1 on the year and 51-7 all-time when playing together.

Cunha also continued to win in singles, claiming two victories to advance to the semifinals. His first match of the day was against Kinshuk Sharma of UNC-Wilmington. Sharma was no match for the No. 2 player in the nation as Cunha cruised to a 6-3, 6-3 win. Cunha also won in straight sets in the quarterfinals against No. 85 Joey Burkhardt from UNC, 6-4, 6-3.

The Duke sophomore improved to 10-1 on the season in singles. His two wins on Sunday moves him into the semifinals, setting up a contest against No. 64 Stefan Hardy from North Carolina.

Pinsky also competed in singles on Sunday, losing in the round of 16 in a match that saw both sets go to tiebreakers. Pinsky took on No. 68 Iain Atkinson from Wake Forest and lost both tiebreakers. Atkinson won the first tiebreaker 9-7 and the second 7-5 to eliminate Pinsky.

Cunha will play his semifinal single match at 9 a.m. Monday morning at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. The singles finals will follow and the tournament will conclude with the doubles championship in the afternoon.

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