Commitment Profile
Countdown: Blue Chip Trio Commits to Duke
by
Ali Jones, 3 November 2014
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Blue chip seniors Catalin Mateas, Vincent Lin and Adrian Chamdani, among the top in the Class of 2015, have verbally committed to Duke University. Ryan Dickerson, with his five-star credentials, joins the University as well, making Coach Ramsey Smith's Blue Devils one of the best recruiting classes of the year.
Tennis runs in the families of the incoming Devils: both Chamdani and Lin have older sisters at Ivy schools. Mateas, whose father was a top tennis player in his native Romania, has a younger sister who also is a blue chip. Dickerson's father played collegiate ball and is a high school tennis coach.
Lin and Mateas plan to pursue pre-medical studies, while Chamdani is more inclined toward economics or public policy. As for their athletic aspirations, they believe that while in residence in Durham, Coach Smith will be able to shape them into stellar college tennis athletes, and that, they hope, will prepare them for the pro circuit.
Coach Smith, now in his seventh season as the Blue Devils' head coach, has compiled an overall 128-47 record and 53-12 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. He has taken his team to the NCAA Championships in each of the past six seasons, and he was named ITA Carolina Region Coach of the year in 2010 and 2012. He was a standout college player - graduating from Duke in 2001 as the winningest singles player in Blue Devil history - and he is a former touring professional.
Adrian Chamdani, whose father played in college, has a sister who plays for Brown. Adrian hopes he can go a step further.
"The dream is to play professional tennis," he said, "but I don't really want to dwell on long-term plans after college because you never know what might happen. I just have to take it one day at a time and train as hard and best I can."
He says he likes to play aggressively and to "dictate the court with either wing. And I try to get to net as much as possible." For his success on court, he credits his coaches and parents and "nothing else."
"Talent was always spouted at me from people, but without the opportunities my parents gave me, and the teachings from my coach, it would never have come to fruition."
