Tennis Holds Royal Blue Club Pro Am

Published on goduke.com

DURHAM – Duke men's and women's tennis hosted the Royal Blue Club Pro Am on Sunday, with members of the Royal Blue Club getting the opportunity to square off against Blue Devil players.
 
It was the 15th time the annual event was hosted and first since 2019, due to Covid-19 concerns. In total, 48 of the Royal Blue Club members, the biggest fans and supporters of Blue Devil tennis, participated in the event at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.

"It was awesome to have our Royal Blue Pro Am back in Sheffield, and we had a fantastic turnout," men's tennis head coach Ramsey Smith said. "This event is always a special opportunity for our men's and women's teams to play and connect with our biggest supporters and fans. We had an awesome time, and I think it got everyone even more excited about the upcoming spring season. I want to give a special thank you to Larry Herst, president of the Royal Blue Club, for spearheading this event and for everything that he does for Duke Tennis."

The Royal Blue Club is a fan club for the men's and women's tennis programs. Benefits of joining include food and beverages at home matches, match day promotions, discounted priority court time at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center, participation in the season finale Team Pro Am and a free Duke Tennis t-shirt.
 
"This is one of the best events we do all year," women's tennis head coach Jamie Ashworth said. "Community engagement for both the women's and men's teams are such a vital component to building a fan base and this Royal Blue event anchors that for us. We have a tremendous home record in both Sheffield and Ambler [Tennis Stadium] and the constant behind all of that is the support system of our Royal Blue fans. Thank you to all of the members for coming out and being a part of the incredible Duke Tennis family."

The women's team began their season this past Saturday when they defeated SMU, 5-2, inside Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center. The men's program kicks off their season on Saturday when they host VCU at Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center at noon.

#GoDuke

DWT Fall 2023 Update

Dear Duke Women's Tennis Family,

After an impressive weekend of competition, the team heads back to work this afternoon with stops in several North Carolina locations.  All of the news from last weekend, as well as a preview of this weekend's matches are linked below.

Best of luck to the ladies this weekend!

Go Duke!

Jay Lapidus and Whitney Dunlap McLeod '01

Iron Dukes Development Officers for Women's Tennis

 

 

 

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Duke Men's Tennis Fall 2023 Preview

Dear Duke Tennis Family,

I hope you had a wonderful summer! The first two weeks of classes are under our belt and we are gearing up for the 2023-2024 season. I couldn’t be more excited to have these guys back on campus.  With the experience and leadership of our returning players, including our three seniors from last season, I am anticipating a memorable season ahead. 

As we look to build on and improve from last year, we will look to our very motivated group who collectively put in hard work over the summer. We have so much trust & confidence in this group because of the way they have established a strong player-led culture. This team values excellence and they pursue it with rigor. 

We are extremely proud of Pedro and Garrett for their accomplishments this summer. The duo competed in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) world tennis tour, collecting a combined two singles and three doubles titles.

Four Blue Devils are in the ITA National Pre-season Rankings, highlighted by Pedro Rodenas at #18 in the singles rankings, and Michael Heller & Andrew Zhang at #10 in the doubles rankings.

We welcomed our sole newcomer this fall, Alexander Visser. He was listed as the No. 1 prospect from New England and is a top-10 National Blue-Chip recruit. I am looking forward to watching Alexander integrate and contribute to the program in his first year. 

I especially want to welcome Jay Lapidus as he rejoins the coaching staff in a unique hybrid capacity. Jay will serve as a player development advisor and a mentor to our student-athletes, in addition to continuing his work with development & networking for Men’s and Women’s Tennis. This is a huge WIN for the program! Many of you reading this have a close relationship with Jay and can attest to the impact he will have on our players.

Our Juniors and Seniors are resuming the reigns on leadership positions this year. Andrew Zhang, Garrett Johns, and Michael Heller will be our team captains for the year, bringing another year of experience to the courts. Andrew Dale will serve once again as the Men's Tennis representative on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). The ACC Student-Athlete Advisory Group representatives will be Connor and Jake Krug. 

Garrett is dedicating the fall season to play professional events around the world to jumpstart his professional career. He will return in January for the team season and take advantage of his permitted COVID year. We wish him the best of luck this fall and looking forward to having him back with us in the Spring. Keep an eye out for him in a city near you!

Our schedule this Fall includes a combination of collegiate and professional tournaments. Each player will be scheduled for 4 or more events in preparation for our spring Championship season.

We have two major facilities projects underway and expected completion is in November. Construction began at Ambler Stadium after the spring season. We will have 12 newly constructed and surfaced outdoor tennis courts, consisting of post-tension foundation and US Open Quality. Once the Sheffield expansion project is complete, the team will have new locker rooms, a spacious player's lounge, and designated training room. The coaches will also have new offices.  

Finally, please note that our annual Giving Day this year will be on Tuesday, November 28th. Our Duke Tennis family has always been generous, and this is a great opportunity to support our team. Thank you in advance for your generosity and more info will be sent as we get closer to that date.

Go Duke! 

Ramsey Smith

Head Men's Tennis Coach 

 

Stokke Leaves Mark on Duke Men’s Tennis

DURHAM, N.C. – Following 14 years as both a student-athlete and coach with the Duke men's tennis program, Jonathan Stokke will resign from his post as Associate Head Coach at the end of May to pursue other professional interests. The former All-American and two-time All-ACC pick joined the staff in July 2010 and has served as the program's associate head coach since 2016.

"Our program has been fortunate for Jonathan's contributions, especially his analytical approach to coaching, his doubles prowess and commitment to improving the on-court performance of our student-athletes," said head coach Ramsey Smith. "I look forward to supporting his career and future successes in tennis and thank him for being a strong representative of Duke tennis as both a player and coach and for a decade of working together." Read More…

Update from Jamie Ashworth, Women's Head Coach

Dear Royal Blue Duke Tennis Fans: 

I wanted to give you a brief update to the start of our semester as we are now a full month into our season. We began the year off with an incredible week on our Hills Family Trip in Honolulu, Hawaii.  It was an extraordinary time where we could really be together and focus on specific goals that we want to accomplish this spring.  We definitely got some great tennis in but more importantly we made huge strides in becoming a family which will pay dividends as the spring goes on and the matches get tougher and tougher.  

We are currently 4-0 and getting ready for the National Team Indoors which begin tomorrow in Madison, Wisconsin (a far cry from the balmy Honolulu weather)!! This will be a great test for our program as fourteen of the top sixteen teams will be playing.  We face off against a very good South Carolina team at 9:00 am and it should be another great challenge for our program.  We are coming off a tremendous 4-1 victory this past weekend over the 10th ranked team in the country - Michigan. The match was played in Ann Arbor and was not only a test for us being our first true road match, but also we had to deal with a team that historically fights and competes extremely well.  We rose to the challenge and truly played a complete match. Physically, emotionally, and mentally we were one hundred percent invested in the match and it showed in our play and results. The win over Michigan came on the heels of us hosting the first two rounds of the National Team Indoors otherwise known as "Kickoff Weekend" where we defeated Fresno State in the first round and a very feisty University of Washington team in the second round.

At this early juncture, we are excited about where we are as a team.  We have a special group of young women that have represented Duke with an incredible amount of sportsmanship, class, and pride; a group that will make all Duke tennis fans proud this spring.  If you can make it out to a match this spring, we would love the support.  

As always, thank you for all you do, and Go Duke!

Jamie Ashworth
Duke Women’s Tennis
 

Update from Ramsey Smith, Head Coach Men's Team

Dear Duke Tennis Family,

Happy New Year from Durham! I hope you had a happy holiday season with family and friends. Classes start tomorrow and we are back on campus getting ready to kick off our spring semester. This team has put in a lot of hard work on and off the court. I am excited about the growth and commitment our guys have shown since August. Here are a few of our team highlights from the fall:

· Nico Alvarez returns strong from injury and picks up 18 ATP points, including his first ATP Challenger main draw win and first professional Futures final

· Jason Lapidus had a breakout semester winning three titles: Our James Bonk Invite B Singles and A1 Doubles (with Catalin Mateas), and Charlotte 49ers Fall Invitational A1 Doubles (with Sean Sculley)

· Spencer Furman takes James Bonk Invite A1 Singles and Wake Invite A3 Doubles (with Nick Stachowiak) titles

· Freshman Sean Sculley finishes fall strong, sweeping top singles and doubles draws of Charlotte 49ers Fall Invitational

· 2017 Team MVP Nick Stachowiak leads the team with an 11-3 singles record and closed the fall campaign with a pair of titles, winning the A2 Singles Draw and A3 Doubles Draw at the Wake Forest Fall Invitational

· We achieved a 3.62 Team GPA for fall semester

This spring we have one of the toughest schedules we have ever had, starting with a unique opportunity to travel to Tempe, Ariz., to face Arizona State in their first dual match in 10 years. After we defeated ASU in the 2008 NCAA Championships, the program was dropped. Duke is its first match as a reinstated program. They have a top-15 level team and there is a lot of excitement around this match in the college tennis world.

Please watch our televised match on the PAC-12 Network this Saturday at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Thank you for your ongoing support of Duke Men’s Tennis and stay tuned for more updates on our spring season as we get going.

Go Duke!    

Ramsey