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Friday Preview – Illinois/Duke & Wake Forest/Oklahoma St

by | Jan 29, 2016 | Blog

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This busy weekend of college tennis gets started with a couple of good ones in Durham and Stillwater. Illinois was dominate in its first three matches last weekend while Duke has taken a few tough losses at home with its lone win coming over an unranked Elon. Wake Forest faced some resistance last weekend against Auburn while Oklahoma State was an eye lash away from upsetting #3 TCU before falling 4-3. I expect both matches to be highly competitive despite the rankings difference.

#7 Illinois (3-0) at #24 Duke (1-2)  – 6pm est – Live Scoring & Streaming – Most knew that Duke would struggle a little this season after losing Jason Tahir, Raphael Hemmeler, Bruno Semenzato, and Chris Mengel but the one thing that has been a bit surprising has been the play of Nicolas Alvarez. The sophomore from Lima, Peru started off the fall by making it to the finals of the Oracle/ITA Masters but since then he’s just 2-5. Alvarez lost to San Diego’s Uros Petronijevic in straight sets last weekend and the week prior he lost in straights to Kentucky’s William Bushamuka. Both of those guys are solid players but to lose both in straight sets was surprising.

Despite taking a few losses and dropping to #24 in rankings, Duke still has the talent to beat higher ranked teams so Illinois will need to bring its best to avoid a loss. Duke won 4-3 in Champaign last season though you can’t compare last year to this year due to the roster turnover.

Projected Singles Lineup:
1. Aleks Vukic (ILL 14.33) vs. #12 Nicolas Alvarez (DU 14.16)
2. #21 Jared Hiltzik (ILL 14.11) vs. #102 TJ Pura (DU 13.37)
3. #41 Aron Hiltzik (ILL 13.74) vs. Vincent Lin (DU 13.40)
4. #67 Julian Childers (ILL 13.36) vs. Catalin Mateas (DU 13.67)
5. Alex Jesse (ILL 12.89) vs. Adrian Chamdani (DU 12.90)
6. Asher Hirsch (ILL 12.79) vs. Josh Levine (DU 12.69)
Depth: Toshiki Matsuya (ILL 13.07); Ryan Dickerson (DU 13.32)

Illinois should sweep the top 3 and I like Julian Childers at #4 though Mateas has yet to lose yet. Chamdani and Levine will be slight favorites at #5 and #6 for Duke and I think Duke probably gets the doubles point. If they play all the courts out it could end up 4-3 but I think the Illini finishes it a little sooner. Prediction: Illinois 4-2 

Last Season’s Meeting:

#11 Duke 4, #8 Illinois 3
Jan 30, 2015 at Urbana, Ill. (Atkins Tennis Center)
Doubles competition
1. Nicolas Alvarez/Raphael Hemmeler (DU) def. #3 Ross Guignon/Tim Kopinski (ILL) 6-3
2. Jason Tahir/Josh Levine (DU) def. Aron Hiltzik/Jared Hiltzik (ILL) 6-3
3. Chris Mengel/Bruno Semenzato (DU) led Farris Gosea/Aleks Vukic (ILL) 5-3, unfinished
Singles competition
1. #36 Jason Tahir (DU) def. Farris Gosea (ILL) 6-4, 7-6 (9-7)
2. #31 Jared Hiltzik (ILL) def. #18 Nicolas Alvarez (DU) 5-7, 6-4, 6-4
3. #40 Tim Kopinski (ILL) def. #103 Raphael Hemmeler (DU) 3-6, 6-2, 6-0
4. #44 Aleks Vukic (ILL) def. #112 Bruno Semenzato (DU) 6-1, 6-1
5. Chris Mengel (DU) def. Blake Bazarnik (ILL) 6-2, 7-5
6. Josh Levine (DU) def. Ross Guignon (ILL) 0-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4
Match Notes
Duke 5-0; National ranking #11
Illinois 3-1; National ranking #8
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (4,5,1,3,6,2)
T-2:30 A-600

#11 Wake Forest (4-0) at #25 Oklahoma State (4-1)- 7pm est/6pm cst – Live Scoring & Streaming – Last season these teams met in Winston-Salem with Wake Forest winning 4-3 though it doesn’t appear that there will be any individual rematches in this year’s meeting. Wake Forest has the deeper lineup so for Oklahoma State to have a shot in this one they’ll need to grab the doubles point. The matchup at #1 between a pair of January admits should be pretty even with both guys having ATP rankings inside the top 600 (Ismailov 449/Chrysochos 574).

Projected Singles Lineup:
1. Petros Chrysochos (WF 14.01) vs. Temur Ismailov (OSU 13.95)
2. #26 Skander Mansouri (WF 14.23) vs. #112 Arjun Kadhe (OSU 13.81)
3. #103 Jonathan Ho (WF 13.99) vs. #68 Julian Cash (OSU 13.73)
4. Romain Bogaerts (WF 14.00) vs. Lucas Gerch (OSU 13.68)
5. Dennis Uspensky (WF 13.59) vs. Tristan Meraut (OSU 13.38)
6. Christian Seraphim (WF 13.55) vs. Lukas Finzelberg (OSU 13.65)
Depth: #110 Maksim Kan (WF 13.15); Jurence Mendoza (OSU 13.21)

Wake Forest lost the doubles point to Auburn last week and came back from a ways down to beat Tennessee while Oklahoma State rolled over TCU and Harvard. I think Oklahoma State takes the doubles point but Wake will go back ahead with wins from Skander Mansouri and Dennis Uspensky at #2 and #5. Julian Cash will tie it up with a win at #3 but Christian Seraphim and Romain Bogaerts will get the Deacs to the magic number 4 for the win. If they finish out the match at #1 Ismailov will pull it out. Prediction: Wake Forest 4-3

Last Year’s Meeting:

#19 Wake Forest 4, #32 Oklahoma State 3
Feb 21, 2015 at Winston-Salem, N.C. (Wake Forest Tennis Complex)
Singles competition
1. #55 Noah Rubin (WF 14.79) def. #88 Jakob Sude (OKST 13.54) 6-3, 7-6 (3)
2. #14 Romain Bogaerts (WF 14.34) def. #87 Arjun Kadhe (OKST 13.57) 7-6 (2), 7-6 (7)
3. Lucas Gerch (OKST 13.82) def. Skander Mansouri (WF 13.07) 6-7 (1-7), 7-6 (10), 1-0 (10-2)
4. #57 Jon Ho (WF 13.49) def. Lukas Finzelberg (OKST 13.82) 7-5, 6-3
5. Tristan Meraut (OKST 13.26) def. Christian Seraphim (WF 13.40) 6-3, 6-4
6. Nicolai Ferrigno (OKST 13.38) def. Keivon Tabrizi (WF 12.92) 6-3, 5-7, 6-2
Doubles competition
1. #50 Skander Mansouri/Christian Seraphim (WF) def. #10 Jakob Sude/Arjun Kadhe (OKST) 6-1
2. Romain Bogaerts/Keivon Tabrizi (WF) def. Tristan Meraut/Jurence Mendoza (OKST) 6-4
3. Nicolai Ferrigno/Lucas Gerch (OKST) def. Sam Bloom/Anthony Delcore (WF) 6-3
Match Notes
Oklahoma State 8-3, 0-0 Big 12; National ranking #32
Wake Forest 7-2, 0-0 ACC; National ranking #19
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (5,4,1,6,2,3)

T-2:49 A-234