The 10th-ranked men's tennis team started the spring season in impressive fashion by handily defeating Furman (4-1) Wednesday at Duke Tennis Stadium by a score of 6-1. The Blue Devils (1-0) dominated the Paladins in both singles and doubles as Duke won five of six singles matches in straight sets and swept Furman in the three doubles matches.
"I was really pleased with our performance," coach Jay Lapidus said. "Personnel wise, we are a much deeper team than Furman and that really paid off for us."
The Blue Devils jumped out to a quick start with all three Duke doubles teams winning their matches in convincing fashion.
Duke's No. 1 duo of Doug Root and Pedro Escudero defeated Drew Parker and Brian Gill, 8-6. Seniors Dmitry Muzyka and Jordan Wile won easily, 8-2, while the duo of Porter Jones and Ted Rueger won by the same score.
Lapidus was impressed with the performance of the Duke's top two doubles teams as a move to pair Root with LSU-transfer Escudero and Wile with Muzyka has proven to be a beneficial one for the Blue Devils as both doubles tandems have played well in their respective matches this spring.
"The two teams really have played well together," Lapidus said. "Doug and Pedro have really clicked from the beginning of this season and we have two very experienced seniors in Dmitry and Jordan who bring a lot of maturity on the court when they play together."
After taking the first point of the meet, the Blue Devils knew they only needed to split their singles matches. However, the team continued to dominate the Paladins as Duke took the first five matches from Furman in convincing fashion. The only blemish to an otherwise perfect meet for Duke occurred when Lee Nickell upset 49th-ranked Doug Root in the last match of the day in three sets, 6-7, 6-2, 6-3.
"It was a tough situation for Doug because we had already won the meet by the time he was ready to play," coach Lapidus said. "In terms of the team aspect, the match didn't mean anything to us, but if we really needed him I think he would have came through for us."
Muzyka had no trouble with his opponent, as he easily disposed of Drew Parker 6-2, 6-1 while Andres Pedroso and Jones both had 6-1, 6-4 victories. In Nos. 5 and 6 singles matches, sophomore Marko Cerenko and Rueger looked impressive as they both blanked their opponents in the first set of their respective matches.
Duke hopes to continue its winning ways this weekend when it travels to the midwest to face Notre Dame and No. 4 Illinois.
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