Men's tennis falls to Duke in nail-biter of a finish

DURHAM — Up 5-4 in the final set of the deciding match against rival No. 14 Duke, North Carolina’s Jose Hernandez let out a scream of pain and frustration.

The UNC freshman had leg cramps so severe that he could barely move around the court.

The injury proved too much for Hernandez to overcome, and he finally fell in a third-set tiebreaker to Duke’s Reid Carleton, 7-5    .

The No. 19 Tar Heels had been tied 3-3 against the Blue Devils, so Carleton’s 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 win also clinched the match for Duke.

It was a gut-wrenching end to the day for North Carolina, which had seemed poised to take the match before Hernandez began to cramp up.

The Tar Heels won the doubles point to jump out to a 1-0 lead. Senior Clay Donato and junior Stefan Hardy led the way with an upset win over Carleton and Henrique Cunha, the country’s top doubles pairing.

“It was a big win for Clay and Stefan,” coach Sam Paul said. “They beat the No. 1 team in the country. That will help them a lot.”

North Carolina and Duke split the first four singles matches. Hardy and Brennan Boyajian won on the third and fourth courts, while Zach Hunter and Andrew Crone fell at the bottom two spots.

With UNC up 3-2, only Donato and Hernandez were left playing. Donato won the first set against Cunha, who is ranked No. 3 nationally, but could not hold on and fell in three sets, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2.

With two teams even, the pressure fell on Hernandez and Carleton’s shoulders.

After the players split the first two sets, Hernandez took a 4-2 lead in the third.

But trying to break Carleton to go up 5-2, Hernandez started to cramp and was forced to take an injury timeout.

He resumed play, but his range of motion was severely limited, and he was forced to serve at a much lower velocity than normal.

Hernandez had a chance to win the match up 5-4 but was broken after going up 30-0.

Hobbling around the court during the tiebreaker, he still took a 5-2 lead. But Carleton scored the next five points to win the match.

Paul did not allow his players to comment after the match but said Hernandez would be fine.

He also said the team would do its best to move past the loss.

“We’re just going to drink this in a little tonight,” he said. “We’ll have a nice dinner and then go back to work tomorrow.”



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