The men's tennis team's quest for a national championship is under way.
Ranked fifth in the nation, the Blue Devils (1-0) opened their spring season with a decisive 6-0 rout of William & Mary yesterday at the Sheffield Tennis Center. Duke withstood somewhat of a challenge in doubles before unloading on the Tribe (3-3) with a sweep in singles.
"We wanted to come out here and not look at them like the 68th-ranked team in the country," said sophomore Mike Yani, who played No. 6 singles and received his first start at No. 1 doubles yesterday. "We wanted to treat them as if they were top 10 and just practice that mentality. We didn't take this team lightly at all, we were really fired up."
Despite their enthusiasm, the Blue Devils received a test early as the Tribe came within striking distance of taking the one point for doubles. While freshman Phillip King and senior Marko Cerenko, Duke's top two players in singles, cruised to an 8-3 victory in their proset at No. 3 doubles, the top two teams for the Blue Devils both found themselves in a back-and-forth struggle.
Yani and Ramsey Smith dug themselves into an early hole at No. 1 doubles, falling behind 7-4 and leaving William & Mary's 17th-ranked tandem of Trevor Spracklin and Patrick Brown two opportunities to serve out the proset. But Smith and Yani fought back, sandwiching an easy service hold by Yani with two impressive breaks of serve to square the proset at 7-7. As quickly as it had rallied to a tie, however, Duke's top pair gave its break advantage right back when Smith double-faulted once and Yani dumped an overhead and a forehand volley into the net.
Following another impressive break of serve that included a topspin lob by Smith to fight off match point and back-to-back forehand winners by Yani, the doubles pair eventually stumbled in the tiebreaker.
"The momentum shifted really fast at the end," Smith said. "We were playing pretty well to break back three times. They started off playing unbelievably and we weren't really into it."
Fortunately for Duke, Smith and Yani's 9-8 defeat came about 15 minutes after seniors Andres Pedroso and Ted Rueger secured the doubles point with a narrow 8-6 victory at No. 2 doubles.
Rueger and Pedroso battled Joe Brooks and Brian Lubin serve for serve as each team player held through the first 13 games. With the match's first point on the line, however, the Blue Devils' seniors pulled out the proset's first break of serve to start the ball rolling for Duke.
Having safely tucked away the doubles point, Duke coach Jay Lapidus gave Smith the rest of the afternoon off in order to work Yani into the singles lineup. Duke had little trouble across the board, as King, Cerenko, Alex Bose, Joel Spicher and Yani all boasted straight-set victories. Playing at No. 1 singles, King fell behind 5-2 in the first set before proceeding on a tear in which he won 11 of the final 12 games over Spracklin.
"I felt like Phillip was pressing a little bit in the first set," Lapidus said. "Every freshman has a little problem the first time in dual matches where they're looking around and wondering how their teammates are doing. Phillip had a lot of friends there today and it took him a little bit of time to regain his concentration. I knew once he settled in that he was going to roll."
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