The North Carolina men's tennis team hosted the Tom Chewning Invitational in Chapel Hill this weekend, with four Tar Heels competing in both singles and doubles events.
The invitational was an important precursor to the fall slate of ITA events, including the All-American and National Fall Championships. UNC previewed matchups with a field consisting of Duke, N.C. State, Wake Forest, Furman, Virginia Commonwealth and N.C. Central.
Here are three takeaways from the weekend as the program enters its 31st year under Hall of Fame head coach Sam Paul.
Newcomers perform with poise
Of the four Tar Heels participating in the event, sophomore Dennis Perumov and graduate Will Peters had strong debuts in Tar Heel uniforms.
Perumov, a Chapel Hill native, notched six points in the tournament, posting a 3-2 record. Securing a pair of wins against N.C. Central — both in straight sets — the walk-on’s scrappy singles effort was a promising sign for UNC’s slew of new talent.
Peters put together a stellar outing, earning a team-high eight points. He displayed notable resiliency against N.C. State’s Joseph Wayand, outlasting a second-set tiebreak loss to eventually claim a 2-1 victory on Saturday.
Another important benefit of preseason invitationals is the ability to test out new combinations of doubles pairings.
As a duo, Perumov and Peters split their matches on Friday, falling to Duke's Faris Khan and Michael Heller, 6-3, and beating N.C. Central's Naresh Bharathy and Neiman Sneed, 6-3. Peters also competed alongside senior Peter Murphy on Saturday, notching on a 6-4 victory against Furman duo Ben Cahill and Emil Westling.
