Carleton and Cunha Advance to Semifinals at ITA All-Americans

TULSA, Okla. - Reid Carleton and Henrique Cunha won two doubles matches to reach the semifinals of the ITA/D'Novo All-American Championships on Friday in Tulsa, Okla. while Carleton also won his singles contest to move on to the quarterfinals.

Carleton and Cunha, the No. 1 duo in the nation, earned two victories in doubles for a spot in the semifinals. In the pair's first match, they fell behind early 3-0 but rallied to win the match 8-6 against No. 22 Jonas Lutgen and Tucker Vorster of Mississippi. The Blue Devil duo got off to a better start in their second match of the day, rolling to an 8-3 win over No. 18 Ionut Beleleu and Costin Paval of Oklahoma.

Saturday's semifinal match will be between the top-ranked duo in the ITA preseason rankings and the defending NCAA Doubles Champions as Carleton and Cunha meet up with Virginia's Drew Courtney and Michael Shabaz. Last season the two doubles teams met twice with Duke winning in the regular season, 8-6, and Virginia coming out on top in the NCAA Championships 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3 and eventually winning the national title.

Carleton claimed a 6-4, 6-1 singles victory over No. 59 Ryan Thacher of Stanford in the round of 16. The win sends Carleton's season singles record to 11-0. Seven of his 11 victories on the year have come against ranked opponents, including all three so far in the main draw of All-Americans. In the quarterfinal round, Carleton will face No. 27 Drew Courtney of Virginia.

Duke's other singles player in the round of 16, No. 2 Henrique Cunha, was eliminated with a 6-2, 6-1 loss to Virginia's Alex Domijian on Friday. It was the first loss of the season for Cunha, who is now 6-1 overall.

Another Blue Devil, freshman Cale Hammond, was also in action on Friday. Hammond traveled a short distance to Burlington, N.C. to compete in the Elon Invitational. He suffered a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 loss to Radford's Stijn Meulemans in the A1 singles draw.

Saturday's events at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center will begin at 10 a.m. (CT) with two rounds of singles. The doubles semifinals will take place following the two singles rounds.

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