Continuing on past years' success in the ACC, the men's tennis team dominated the draw in both the singles and doubles competition in the first tournament of the spring season at the ACC Coaches' Indoor tournament this weekend in Winston-Salem.
The Blue Devils were led by singles and doubles finalist Pedro Escudero. The third-seeded sophomore reached the singles finals before falling to top-seeded Roberto Bracon of N.C. State, 6-2, 6-4. Escudero also teamed up with junior Doug Root to take the doubles championship, disposing the tournament's top-seeded tandem of Myles Clouston and Raul Munoz of Wake Forest in the finals.
Duke coach Jay Lapidus was pleasantly surprised with Escadero's outstanding performance since it was his first match as a Blue Devil. The sophomore only became eligible to play this semester following his transfer last year from Louisiana State.
"Pedro definitely stood out this weekend," Lapidus said. "He really came in and performed extremely well, and I was really happy with his overall performance. I'm really excited because he is going to be a strong bonus to our team."
Despite feeling fatigue from his matches in both singles and doubles, Escudero cruised to a straight set victory over Davidson Kozlowski of Florida State, 6-4, 6-3, in the semifinals before falling to Bracon. However, the overall outcome of the weekend pleased the sophomore.
"It was just a great tournament for me and the team," Escudero said. "Since this was my first tournament with Duke, I really didn't know what to expect. But I was really comfortable out there except for being a little fatigued at the end."
The Blue Devils had five other players reach the round of 16 in the singles bracket as well as three teams in the semifinals of the doubles bracket. Andreas Pedroso and Porter Jones also made an impression on Lapidus with their solid performances in both the singles and doubles competition. Pedroso reached the semifinals in both the singles and, with Marko Cerenko, in the doubles.
Jones reached the round of 16 before losing to Escudero and teamed up with sophomore Ted Rueger to reach the semifinals of the doubles competition before losing to Escudero and Root.
"Overall I was very pleased with our performance," Lapidus said. "Our record this weekend shows that we have a very deep team with a lot of young players that are starting to emerge. Because we have so many talented players, they really push each other in practice, and that can only help us as we get ready for the rest of the spring season."
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