UNC men's tennis destroys Demon Deacons

Different day, different format, same result.

That was the story for North Carolina men’s tennis players Jose Hernandez and Joey Burkhardt in the ITA-USTA Carolinas Regional tournament this weekend. The pair beat Wake Forest’s Danny Kreyman and Jonathan Wolff 8-5 in doubles on Saturday, then each beat one of the same two Demon Deacons in singles on Sunday.

Burkhardt outlasted Wolff in three sets in the tournament’s round of 16, winning 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (4). Hernandez then beat Kreyman in a three-setter of his own, winning his round of 16 match 6-4, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5).

“It’s a bad feeling to lose to the same guy in singles and doubles,” Burkhardt said. “It must be pretty hard on them, but it’s nice for both Jose and me to come through.”

The doubles win was a back-and-forth affair. Burkhardt and Hernandez broke Kreyman and Wolff to go up 5-3 but dropped the next game to get Wake Forest back on serve.

They finally broke the Demon Deacons a second time to go ahead 7-5, then served out the match.

In singles, Burkhardt won in a battle of attrition. Many of the points turned into long rallies, and late in the third set, Wolff began to get cramps.

He took a medical timeout and returned to play, but by the final points of the match could barely walk around the court.

Burkhardt, who has known Wolff since their days on the junior tennis circuit, said he knew his opponent had struggled with endurance in the past and tailored his game plan accordingly.

“He’s a smaller guy so he has to work very hard,” Burkhardt said. “My goal was to move him from side to side and give him a lot of high balls to make him have to move around more. I could see him getting tired as each point went on.”

After the match, Wolff lay on the court for more than 10 minutes while being attended to by a trainer.

Hernandez’s match started smoothly, but ended up equally grueling. He served for the match while leading 5-3 in the second set, but was broken and eventually lost the set.

After a third set filled with sloppy play, Hernandez barely managed to force Kreyman to a tiebreaker.

Knotted at 5-5, Hernandez won two straight points to take the match, which finally ended when Kreyman played a volley into the net.

The match was almost a major upset. Hernandez is ranked No. 30 in the country and was seeded second in the tournament. Kreyman is unranked and was a No. 17 seed in the tournament’s singles bracket.

“It was a mental match in the end,” Hernandez said. “When you’re in a tiebreak in the third set, the only difference is how mentally prepared you are. At five all, I hit a backhand winner down the line, and after the match I was going back to that point saying, ‘Wow, did I really do that?’ If I played that point a hundred more times, I might never go down the line.”

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