Just 10 days after leading No. 18 North Carolina to a dramatic 4-3 comeback road victory against arch-rival Duke, the Tar Heels’ top two singles players could not quite repeat the feat.
UNC’s No. 27 Jose Hernandez and No. 81 Brennan Boyajian pulled off three-set upsets of Duke’s top players No. 4 Henrique Cunha and No. 36 Chris Mengel last Wednesday, but both were defeated this weekend in straight sets of the ACC tournament semifinal in Cary. The Tar Heels lost 4-2.
“Those guys always fight for us, and they played pretty well up top in the second set,” coach Sam Paul said. “Those kids just outplayed us on a couple points here and there.”
Hernandez had won both of his two previous complete matches against Cunha, including a three-set thriller last week in Durham.
Hernandez also led by a set in last year’s ACC tournament semifinal before their match was abandoned after Duke clinched the overall victory. In the ACC tournament when a team wins the overall match ongoing singles matches are not finished.
“It’s always tough to play top 10 players, the margin of error is definitely minimized,” Hernandez said. “I felt like I had to come into this match even more mentally prepared.”
Just like their match last week, Cunha won the first set. But Hernandez challenged him in the second set, and was tied 2-2 when Cunha broke Hernandez for the first advantage of the set.
“I started slow, and he was seeing the court pretty well,” Hernandez said. “In the second set, I was hitting the ball much better and it was pretty even, but then I had a really bad service game and that was really the difference in the match.”
Hernandez almost responded with a break of his own, forcing four deuce points before Cunha finally took a 4-2 lead. Hernandez held his last two service games, but Cunha’s lone break proved enough for a 6-4 second set win.
