Six months ago, The Tiger explored Clemson’s most promising athletes following their first year as a Tiger. Following his performance in this week’s ITA Regionals event, one of the piece’s features, tennis player Noa Vukadin, showed returns on investment as he made an early case to be included among Clemson’s most sensational sophomores.
Vukadin returned from Cary, North Carolina, as an ITA Regional doubles finalist and a singles quarterfinalist, cementing his status as a doubles maestro while adding to his impressive singles resume. Up until the semifinals, the doubles rounds were the first of eight sets with a tiebreak at 7-7, if necessary.
For Vukadin and Maxwell Smith, a tiebreak was a mere afterthought. They won their first four matches 8-3, 8-5, 8-3, 8-5, defeating the No. 49 and No. 74 ranked doubles team on their way to the semifinals.
Duke’s Pedro Rodenas and Gerard Planelles Ripoll, ranked No. 28, proved to be no match for the red-hot Tigers as they defeated the Devil’s duo 6-3, 6-4 to earn a ticket to the doubles championship match. After splitting the first two sets with No. 18 ranked team Luciano Tacchi and Luca Pow, the ultimate difference was two points as Vukadin and Smith lost 11-9 in a deciding third set tiebreak.
On the singles side, seven Tigers were featured in the 64-player main draw, two of which, Stewart Aronson and Marko Mesarovic, earned a bid by winning two straight qualifying matches. Amidst his doubles rampage, Vukadin was simultaneously competing in singles, playing multiple matches a day. For Vukadin, a straight-set victory over No. 122 ranked Logan Zapp in the first round set the tone for the weekend.
He followed the win with a straightforward victory in the second round before his character was tested by NC State’s Jakub Katuch in the third round. Katuch won the first set 6-2 before Vukadin came surging back to win the next two sets 6-4, 6-4 as he completed a remarkable comeback. His journey would unfortunately end in the quarterfinals at the hands of Wake Forests’ No. 26-ranked Dhakshineswar Suresh, despite Vukadin forcing a third set.
Ironically, Suresh’s victory against Vukadin in singles at 10 a.m. was just the tip of the iceberg. They faced off again hours later in a 1:30 p.m. doubles match. Ultimately, Vukadin got the last laugh over the Demon Deacon.
Fellow Tigers Marko Mesarovic and Wissam Abderrahman reached the round of 16 in singles, while Romain Gales and Viktor Markov came up short in the second round. Despite his defeat in singles, Markov found chemistry with teammate Max Damm as they won three straight matches, the third of which came over the No. 82 Gamecock pairing, Lucas Andrade Da Silva and Jelani Sarr.
Their riot to the quarterfinals was halted by the top No. 30 ranked duo of Rodenas and Ripoll. Just as any good teammates would do, Vukadin and Smith handled the Blue Devils in the next round, as they avenged Markov and Damm.
In a competition involving several ACC opponents, the Tigers got a sense of what is to come in conference play this season. Contributions from the entire Clemson lineup made for an overall impressive display, with Vukadin as the star of the show. On Nov. 1, the Tigers will be back in North Carolina as they look to bring the heat to Winston Salem for the annual Wake Forest tournament.
