There was a moment of hesitation, then relief.
The No. 3 ranked Duke men's tennis team continued its undefeated season (4-0) with a win against No. 18 Texas A&M (2-2) in the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center Saturday. The Blue Devils swept the Aggies in doubles competition and then won three singles matches to put Duke over the top, 4-3.
"We had a tough match. [Texas A&M] was really good-we didn't match up particularly well because our team styles didn't match up, which was my fault," head coach Jay Lapidus said. "We did a good job of fighting; A&M is really good."
The end result came down to the matchup between No. 38 Doug Root and Keith From. The match lasted a half hour longer than the others and was a grueling and suspenseful competition. Root won the first set 7-6. Then From won the second by the same score, 7-6. With his coach yelling "Focus!" on the bench by the court, Root won the last set 6-3 to clinch the team victory.
The Blue Devils won the doubles matches despite having two of them go into tiebreakers. Freshman Michael Yani and senior Porter Jones defeated Ryan Newport and Jarin Skube, 9-8. Root and junior Ramsey Smith, who are ranked No. 20 nationally, beat From and Shuon Madden 9-8 as well. Marko Cerenko and Ted Rueger, both juniors, defeated Dumitru Caradima and Cody Hubbell, 8-4.
Texas A&M made a comeback in the singles matches, but it didn't come close enough. Madden defeated No. 43 Smith, 7-6, 7-5. Duke junior Andres Pedroso, who is ranked No. 36 nationally, fell to Caradima 6-2, 6-1.
Texas A&M's Hubbell took a victory over freshman Joel Spicher, but only after a long fight, winning 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. No. 78 Cerenko defeated Juan Aramburo in only two sets, 6-1, 6-3. Jones also recorded a victory against Ryan Newport, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2.
"I was surprised. After the doubles, I thought we were in business, because our singles are so good, but [Texas A&M] fought real well," Lapidus said. "I can't imagine a team coming back after losing the doubles competition, and then potentially winning, but they did a great job."
The Blue Devils had to do all this without the help of senior Pedro Escudero, who has been out of commission this spring because he had elbow surgery recently. At No. 35, Escudero is Duke's highest-ranked player. Lapidus is expecting Escudero to return soon, however.
"We're a very deep team. We have 10 guys who can play, so if one gets hurt we can still make up for it in a sense," Lapidus said. "But Pedro is experienced and he is a real good player. He has a lot of maturity, and he is a winner.... I hope that he returns in a couple of weeks; that would be real helpful to us."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.