No matter what the sport, no matter what the odds, any competition between Duke and North Carolina is bound to be an exciting one, and Wednesday's men's tennis match was no exception.
Many individual matches went down to the wire, but Duke (14-5, 6-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) exhausted the Tar Heels (12-6, 5-1), who buckled under the 18th-ranked Blue Devils' pressure as Duke came away with a 6-1 win.
Freshman Marko Cerenko clinched the victory with a three-set win over Michael Grass at No. 6 singles. After leading 6-5 in the first set, he gave up the tiebreaker, dropping the set, 7-6. But Cerenko fought through the slump, pulling out a 6-4 win in the second set and dominating the third, 6-2.
"We did a good job because were up breaks," coach Jay Lapidus said. "[Senior Dmitry Muzyka] went up a break in the third, and Marko was up a break in the third.... When you have to win one of the matches and you're up a break in all three of them, it would take a miracle for us to fall apart at that point."
Muzyka, who had garnered a tough 7-6 first-set win over Adam Seri in the No. 3 spot but then faltered in the second, 3-6, won his third set,
Freshman Ramsey Smith, playing No. 4 singles, came back from a 7-6 first-set loss to Gregg Hill to win the second and third sets, with scores of 6-2 and 6-4, respectively and continue his streak of 14 consecutive dual match wins.
Smith and Muzyka did not fare as well in doubles, however, losing 8-3 to Seri and Grass at the No. 2 spot. Nevertheless, the Blue Devils gained the doubles point, as sophomore Doug Root and junior Jordan Wile defeated Robert Tedesco and Tony Thomas at No. 1, 8-2, and sophomore Porter Jones and freshman Ted Rueger rounded out the doubles with an 8-6 decision over Eric Saunders and Tripp Phillips.
UNC started out strong in singles, winning its first sets at No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 singles and forcing three first-set tiebreakers, two of which it won. The Tar Heels rapidly ran out of steam, though; they captured only two second sets and lost all of the matches that went to three.
Senior Alberto Brause captured Duke's first singles win of the afternoon at No. 2. Brause's sloppy play in the middle of the first set put Tedesco ahead of Brause by a 4-2 margin, but Brause cleaned up his game and slowed down his tempo to garner a 6-4 win.
At this point, heat and exhaustion set in for Tedesco. Having already dropped his doubles match, Tedesco seemed to run out of steam after the first set as the more rested Brause coasted to a 6-1 second-set victory.
"The reason I was losing is that I was making a few errors; I knew I could adjust," Brause said. "I was trying to hurry, rush the point, so I started waiting for the perfect moment to put the point away. I thought that was the difference. Because we played longer points, I think he got tired, and after I won the first set, I think he got frustrated."
Root also tallied a straight-set victory for the Blue Devils, handing Phillips a 6-3, 6-4 loss. After winning the first set easily, Root struggled early in the second set but rallied from a 2-1 deficit to take No. 1 singles and put Duke up 3-0.
But Thomas subsequently exacted his revenge on Wile at the No. 5 spot, giving UNC its sole match point with a 6-4, 6-2 win.
Duke will close out its ACC regular season competition this weekend, with a Saturday home match against Clemson at 1 p.m. and a trip to Wake Forest at 2 p.m. this Sunday.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.