Upcoming Event: Men's Tennis versus ITA All-American Championship on September 20, 2025
Men's Tennis
vs ITA All-American Championship
Friday, November 4
Flushing, N.Y.
All Day
Duke University
vs
Day Two at USTA/ITA National Indoor
Blue Devils Productive in Two States Friday
11/4/2016 8:52:00 PM | Men's Tennis
DURHAM, N.C. - Staying alive in the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship and an undefeated day at the Dick Vitale Intercollegiate Clay Court Classic in Florida highlighted the Duke men's tennis team's performances Friday at a pair of tournaments.
Junior Nicolas Alvarez won his consolation match 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-1 in New York City while freshman Robert Levine, sophomore Catalin Mateas and senior TJ Pura cruised to seven wins in the Vitale tournament at Lakewood Ranch, Fla.
Alvarez took on Ryotaro Matsumura of Kentucky in the consolation bracket and fought through a challenging three sets to remain alive in the tournament. With the two on serve in the first set, Alvarez broke and held to go up 4-2. Matsumura answered with a hold and break of his own to even the set at 4-4. The two remained even during the first set and went to the tiebreaker, where Matsumura cruised 7-1.
In the second set, the two were on serve through the first eight games before Alvarez held and broke to capture the win. The deciding set had Alvarez jump out to a 3-0 advantage with a hold, break and hold. He held off Matsumura with wins in three of the final four games to capture the match. Alvarez, who is 6-4 this fall, takes on Texas' Yuya Ito Saturday in the consolation quarterfinals.
For the Vitale event in Florida, Levine and Mateas opened doubles with an 8-1 win versus Zachary Goldberg and Dominic Lea of North Florida. The Duke duo advances to Saturday's 8 a.m. quarterfinals, where the Blue Devils will face UCF's Harrison Richmond and Mariano Porter. Levine and Mateas enter Saturday's action with a 2-1 record in doubles.
In singles, Duke tallied three opening-round victories. Pura, playing just singles in Florida, opened his tournament with a convincing 6-1, 6-0 victory versus Javier Fernandez of Florida Gulf Coast. Levine, the top seed in the draw, picked up a 6-0, 6-0 win against Lea. Mateas completed the opening round sweep with a 6-2, 6-1 triumph versus Porter. Mateas is the No. 3 seed in the draw and is ranked No. 100 in the preseason Oracle/ITA ledger.
The Round of 16 featured three more Duke wins as Levine topped Christopher Barrus of UCF 6-2, 6-3, Mateas downed Porter 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 and Pura defeated Eduardo Paz of Princeton 6-0, 6-2. Levine takes on Maxx Lipman of Florida, Mateas plays Christopher Morin-Kougoucheff of Louisville and Pura faces the draw's No. 2 seed, Alexandru Gozun of USF, in the quarterfinals at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Levine and Pura are 8-5 in singles this fall with Mateas 9-3 entering Saturday's action.
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