Blue Devils Ready to Close Fall Season

DURHAM, N.C. – The Duke men's tennis team will end its fall season this weekend with members of the squad in action at two events. The Blue Devils will be taking part in the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships (NIIC) in Flushing, N.Y., and Dick Vitale Intercollegiate Clay Court Classic in Bradenton, Fla.

“The fall has been good,” head coach Ramsey Smith said. “I feel as a team we've been getting a little bit better each tournament. We'd certainly like to continue that trend. We've won titles the last two weekends with Jason Lapidus and TJ Pura winning the doubles draw at the Wolfpack Invitational and Spencer Furman having a breakthrough performance in his first college tournament [taking his singles flight] last weekend in Charlotte. I've been very pleased with how the fall has progressed. This is the last opportunity in the competitive fall season.”

For the third consecutive year Nicolas Alvarez will represent Duke at the NIIC, which runs from Thursday to Sunday. Hosted by Columbia University, this prestigious event features a 32-player singles draw and a 20-team doubles draw for men and women. Gaining automatic entry into the tournament are champions from the USTA/ITA Division I Regional Championships held across the country in October, winners of the ITA Oracle Cup, and the consolation champions, doubles finalists, men's singles quarterfinalists and women's singles semifinalists from the Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's and Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships.

Alvarez, a junior, will open the competition Thursday at 12:45 p.m. against Virginia's Thai-Son Kwiatowski, the No. 2 seed of the event. If Alvarez wins, he will face the winner of the Ryotaro Matsumura (Kentucky) versus Wayne Montgomery (Georgia) contest Friday.

“Making the tournament for three consecutive years is pretty impressive,” Smith said of Alvarez returning to the NIIC. “Nico has been playing well and working hard. He's ready. Every single person in this tournament is very, very good. Playing Thai-Son in the first round will certainly be a challenge. It should be a good match.”

So far this fall, Alvarez is 5-3 in singles with the only losses coming to nationally ranked foes. Alvarez is ranked No. 14 in the preseason Oracle/ITA ledger. The Lima, Peru, product dropped both singles decisions at the ITA All-American Championships before a strong run to the semifinals at the ITA Carolina Regional. He opened the Carolina Regional with three straight set wins before a 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (4) victory against South Carolina's Yanch Davis in the quarterfinals. Alvarez took on No. 7 Skander Mansouri of Wake Forest in the semifinals and fell 7-6 (4), 6-2.

In Bradenton, senior Pura, sophomore Catalin Mateas and freshman Robert Levine will take part in the tournament, held at the Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club. All three will take part in singles and doubles action during the event.

“This is a really neat event,” Smith said of the Dick Vitale event. “First of all it's on clay, which we don't get to play on. Dick Vitale is very involved in the entire event and it's for the V Foundation. There are players from across the country and it should be a high-level tournament.”

Pura is 6-5 in singles this fall while Mateas is 7-3 and Levine 6-5. Mateas is ranked No. 100 in the preseason Oracle/ITA ledger. Levine is the No. 9 freshman in the Oracle ITA Division I Men's National Freshmen/Newcomer rankings.

Following Saturday's play, the group will head to Dick Vitale's house for a dinner party.

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Blue Devils Ready to Close Fall Season

Players Mentioned

Nicolas Alvarez

Spencer Furman

Jason Lapidus

Robert Levine

Catalin Mateas

TJ Pura

Duke information

Blue Devils Ready to Close Fall Season

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Players Mentioned

Nicolas Alvarez

Spencer Furman

Jason Lapidus

Robert Levine

Catalin Mateas

TJ Pura

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Duke information