The Duke men’s tennis team has had two consecutive seasons of reaching the Round of 16 in the NCAA tournament. But the tight-knit group lost several seniors, including top singles player Garrett Johns and doubles tandems Andrew Zhang and Michael Heller, all of whom graduated after five years with the program. But head coach Ramsey Smith has reloaded with a large, experienced and talented class in the transfer portal.

“This special group of young men bring individual and unique strengths to our program and collectively align with our bold vision for Duke tennis,” Smith said. “They share a love of hard work that will create a fun and energetic practice environment and have already embraced our ‘Team First’ mentality. This is an exciting time for our program.”

Here is the full list of incoming transfers.

Sophomore Cooper Williams, Universal Tennis Rating*: 13.70

The biggest splash in this transfer portal class is Cooper Williams, who is the ITA Freshman of the Year. Williams competed for Harvard his freshman year and secured the No. 1 singles spot. He recorded a 17-10 overall singles record with a 25-13 record in doubles. The All-American led the Crimson to their highest ranking in program history, advancing to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Individual Championship. Williams finished the season ranked No. 14 in singles and No. 21 in doubles, but cracked the top 10 in both on the year. The New York native also has experience at the Grand Slam junior tournaments, reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon. Williams comes to Duke as one of the most talented players in program history and will bolster the Blue Devils’ top lineup.

Sam Landau, UTR: 13.05

Arriving as arguably Duke’s second-best transfer, Landau has thrived in his first two years at Indiana. The 6-foot-1 Los Angeles native is 11-7 in singles on courts 1 and 2, enough to earn him a first-team All-Big 10 spot in 2024. Landau has also climbed to No. 55 in the ITA’s individual singles rankings. Look for Landau to provide depth in both singles and doubles as the rising junior posts a 10-4 doubles record in his second year as a Hoosier. While youngsters Pedro Rodenas and Williams will likely slot into the top two singles slots, Landau has an opportunity to grab the third spot for this Blue Devils team.

Gerard Planelles Ripoll, UTR: 12.93

Smith secured a doubles specialist in incoming graduate student Theo Winegar. Listed at 6 feet 3 inches, Winegar has proven to use his length to excel on the doubles court, finishing his senior year with a 22-8 record, good enough to qualify for the 2024 NCAA Doubles Championship with Columbia University teammate Michael Zheng. Winegar and Zheng were ranked the No. 1 doubles pair in the ITA’s Northeast Region at season’s end. Winegar will attend Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.

Graduate Oscar Brown, UTR: 12.53

Brown played his undergraduate years at the University of Portland and is on the mound for the 2023-24 season. At the No. 1 spot, he has a 12-13 overall singles record (8-8 in doubles) and is 10-4 in doubles. Brown earned second-team All-WCC honors in 2024 and was also on the WCC All-Academic team. Originally from Sevenoaks, England, Brown will complete his Master of Business Administration degree at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.

Graduate Andreja Petrovic, UTR: 12.13

Petrovic is Smith’s only intra-conference transfer, joining the Blue Devils after competing for three seasons at Florida State. He has 61 career singles wins, including a season at North Dakota. He posted a 19-8 singles record in 2023, with most of his matches coming on courts 3, 4 and 5. He also has experience in doubles, with a 27-26 leg in his Seminole career. Petrovic was a 2022 third-team All-ACC selection as Florida State’s No. 2 singles player. His UTR dropped after not competing last season, but has improved to 13.19. The Oslo, Norway native represented his country at the 2022 ATP Cup and the United Cup in 2023 and 2024.

This seven-member transfer class will join freshman Saahith Jayaraman, who is currently the nation’s No. 14 prospect, on Duke’s 2024-25 roster.

*Note: Universal Tennis Rating, or UTR, is a global tennis rating system that rates every tennis player from juniors to pros on a scale of 1.00 to 16.50. UTR takes into account match results, strength of opponent, competition history, and more. Learn about the ranking system Here.

Ranjan Jindal
| Sports Editor

Ranjan Jindal is a third-year student at Trinity and the sports editor of Volume 120 of The Chronicle.