The men's tennis team is playing better than it ever has this early in the year, and the quick start has all the Blue Devils thanking the same thing.
The new Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center has enabled them to practice more during the winter months and the Blue Devils (3-0) feel the results are quite noticeable. They certainly were yesterday afternoon as the new building played host to a 7-0 Duke drubbing of No. 20 Texas (4-1), the Blue Devils' second win over a ranked team in four days.
"The indoor facility has made a world of difference to us," senior Doug Root said. "In the last three years, we've never been playing this well. We'd have to practice in the IM building or go to Chapel Hill to practice for an hour. Now we can come here and practice all day if we want, and you can see our level is really high right now."
The Blue Devils won the hotly contested doubles point and cruised through singles, winning all six first sets. Duke won four of the singles matches in straight sets and the shutout was preserved when Ramsey Smith knocked off Nick Crowell in three sets, 6-3, 1-6, 7-5.
The match did not start off so lopsided, as the teams split the first two doubles matches. The doubles point's decisive match pitted Duke's No. 1 tandem of Root and Smith against Michael Blue and Crowell, the 12th-ranked team that won the Rolex Indoors last weekend.
Down 6-7, the Blue Devil duo won three straight games to win the match, and the doubles point, 9-7. During the final run, Duke sandwiched two perfect 40-love games around the broken serve.
"It was a really good win for us," Root said. "The way Ramsey and I have been playing, as the match progresses we start to play better and better. We had a lot of opportunities early, but the way it's been working for us, hopefully we just keep plugging away and eventually we'll get it."
In singles, coach Jay Lapidus once again changed around his lineup, dropping Andres Pedroso from No. 1 singles to the three slot. He also inserted Marko Cerenko and Porter Jones into the lineup, marking their first starts of the dual meet season.
"Our top six are virtually interchangeable," Lapidus said. "I think it's stupid to leave the lineup set, it doesn't give guys a chance to play up enough where they feel they belong. If everyone has the opportunity to play, it makes life easier for everybody."
And the way Duke is playing right now, things are quite easy for the Blue Devils coach.
"We're playing April tennis in February, which we've never been able to do before because of facilities," Lapidus said. "We're playing at a much higher level than we were last year at this time. I'm really happy with the way we're playing."
Note: Senior Pedro Escudero, who has been out with an elbow injury, is expected to begin hitting tomorrow. and Lapidus hopes he will rejoin the team in the next couple of weeks.
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