Men's, women's tennis compete at ACC Indoors

The men's tennis team nearly made every other team a mere footnote in the ACC Indoor Tennis Championships that were held over the last three days. After having captured seven ACC titles in the 1990s, including six of the last seven, fourth-ranked Duke burst out of the gates once again, dominating the tournament at Clemson. Junior Ramsey Smith and senior Doug Root won the doubles title; junior Andres Pedroso fell in the singles final. "It was a good weekend for our team," Root said. "Everybody played well. We represented the school and the team nicely. We are definitely the class of the ACC." Coach Jay Lapidus echoed his star senior. "We used the tournament to get more match tough for the season," he said. "The conference, especially Clemson and Virginia, is a bit stronger this year. Nevertheless, we still are the favorites to win." Among the four semifinalists in the singles draw, three-the top-seeded Root, Pedroso and Smith-were Blue Devils. Not only did these players advance as deep as they did, but they played impressively along the way. The three combined to lose just one set over the first two days of competition, with the one hiccup occurring when Eric Jackson of N.C. State swiped the second set of his quarterfinal match with Root. Despite Duke's strong presence in the semifinals, the lone non-Devil, Clemson's Thomas Boneicki, emerged as the singles champion, defeating Pedroso 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) in a hard-fought finale. At one point in the match, Pedroso even had Boneicki cornered with a match point of his own, but the Tiger scratched back to seize the title. "I could smell victory in the third set.... If I could have capitalized, I definitely could have won the match," Pedroso said. "However, this tournament gives me great confidence for upcoming events." To reach the finals, Boneicki edged Smith 7-5, 7-6(3), while Pedroso pulled off a mini-upset in toppling Root, the 33rd-ranked player in the nation, 6-2, 7-6(4). In the doubles portion of the championships, the Devils performed just as commandingly. The Blue Devils' combination of juniors Ted Rueger and Marko Cerenko glided to the doubles final, where they met their teammates, the second-seeded tandem of Root and Smith, who are also the 34th-ranked team in the nation. Root and Smith prevailed and won 8-6, capturing the doubles' title. "We wanted to win after suffering disappointing loses in singles [yesterday] morning," Smith said. "We got two breaks early in the match... and we squeezed it out from there." The Blue Devils return to the court in New Jersey next weekend at the Princeton Invitational.