Men?s Tennis Season Ends in NCAA Round of 16

Thursday, May 14

Waco, Texas

8:00 PM

Duke University

USC (Round of 16)

Men?s Tennis Season Ends in NCAA Round of 16

5/14/2015 11:31:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

WACO, Texas – The 10th-ranked Duke men's tennis team had its season come to an end Thursday night with a 4-0 setback to No. 7 USC in the round of 16 of the NCAA Team Championship. The Blue Devils finished the year with a 24-7 record, tied for the sixth most victories in a year in program history.

Duke, which was also making its fifth NCAA round of 16 appearance in the last six years, finished the season with 17 wins against ranked opponents, tied for the sixth most in a season in program history.

For the second consecutive match, the Blue Devils surrendered the doubles point, falling on courts one and two. On court one, USC's third-ranked pair of Yannick Hanfmann and Roberto Quiroz downed Duke's No. 20 duo of senior Raphael Hemmeler and freshman Nicolas Alvarez, 8-3. With a 1-1 tie, Hanfmann and Quiroz broke to take a 2-1 lead and extended it to 3-1 and maintained the two-game lead at 4-2 before breaking again and going up 5-2. USC went up 6-2 and 7-3 before breaking Duke again in the final game for the 8-3 final. Alvarez and Hemmeler ended the year at 17-10 overall.

The doubles point ended with an 8-5 setback on court two by Duke senior Jason Tahir and junior Josh Levine to USC's 74th-ranked team of Eric Johnson and Max de Vroome. With the teams tied at 4-4, USC broke and then held for a 6-4 advantage. Tahir and Levine held to cut the deficit to 6-5, but Johnson and de Vroome held and broke in the final game to end the match. Tahir and Levine ended the season with a 19-7 record.

On court three, USC's Nick Crystal and Thibault Forget led Duke junior Bruno Semenzato and sophomore TJ Pura 7-6 when the match was halted.

In singles, the Trojans made it a 2-0 advantage with a Hanfmann 6-1, 6-1 victory against Alvarez. Hanfmann, who is ranked 15th, jumped ahead 4-0 in the opening set and cruised through the second against 13th-ranked Alvarez. Alvarez ended the campaign with a 30-10 record, tied for the ninth most wins by a freshman in program history.

USC pushed its lead to 3-0 with a win on court five, where No. 94 de Vroome defeated redshirt senior Chris Mengel, 6-3, 6-2. In the opening set, de Vroome jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Mengel made it a 4-2 and 5-3 deficit, but de Vroome served out for the win. In the second set, Mengel again fell behind early, trailing 2-0. Mengel got it down to a 3-2 deficit before de Vroome won three straight games to end the match. Mengel, who earlier in the year won his 100th career singles match, ended the season with a 17-8 mark.

The Trojans finished the match with their fourth point on a 6-1, 7-5 victory by No. 25 Quiroz against No. 41 Tahir on court two. Tahir was down 2-1 in the opening set before he was broken in consecutive service games to go down 5-1. Quiroz then closed out for the first set victory. In the second set, the two were even at 4-4 before Quiroz broke to go up 5-4. Tahir, facing two match points, came back to break and retie the set at 5-5. Quiroz then broke again and held to end the match. Tahir ended the year with a 25-18 mark and became the 15th player in program history to reach 100 career singles victories.

USC led on two courts when the action was halted and the third match was tied on the final court. On court three, No. 85 Johnson was ahead of No. 57 Hemmeler, 6-3, 4-4. On court six, it was No. 61 Crystal leading Pura, 7-5, 5-0. On court four it was No. 45 Jonny Wang and Semenzato tied 6-2, 4-6 and going to the third set.

#GoDuke

#10 Duke 4 #7 USC 0
May 14, 2015 at Waco, Texas (Hurd Tennis Center)

Singles competition
1. #15 Yannick Hanfmann (USC) def. #13 Nicolas Alvarez (DU) 6-1, 6-1
2. #25 Roberto Quiroz (USC) def. #41 Jason Tahir (DU) 6-1, 7-5
3. #85 Eric Johnson (USC) led #57 Raphael Hemmeler (DU) 6-3, 4-4
4. #45 Jonny Wang (USC) v. Bruno Semenzato (DU) 6-2, 4-6
5. #94 Max de Vroome (USC) def. Chris Mengel (DU) 6-3, 6-2
6. #61 Nick Crystal (USC) led TJ Pura (DU) 7-5, 5-0

Doubles competition
1. #3 Roberto Quiroz/Yannick Hanfmann (USC) def. #20 Raphael Hemmeler/Nicolas Alvarez (DU) 8-3
2. Eric Johnson/Max de Vroome (USC) def. Jason Tahir/Josh Levine (DU) 8-5
3. Nick Crystal/Thibault Forget (USC) led Bruno Semenzato/TJ Pura (DU) 7-6

Match Notes
Duke 24-7; National ranking #10
USC 25-4; National ranking #7
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (1,5,2)
NCAA Team Championship Round of 16