The men's tennis team continued its trek up the polls with a pair of victories this weekend against No. 15 Virginia Commonwealth and Princeton.
The Blue Devils (3-0), ranked 10th nationally, hosted an unlikely tennis power in VCU (6-1) Friday. The Rams continually boast a collection of talented singles players, as they have qualified for the NCAA tournament for 10 consecutive seasons. In Duke's Sheffield Tennis Center, VCU battled valiantly on several courts, but in the end the Blue Devils were too resilient, winning 5-1.
"The win was really good," Phillip King said. "We lost last time, so we definitely get that confidence and the new guys get more experience. It was a tough match and we had to be ready."
Freshmen Ludovic Walter, ranked 77th nationally, sealed Duke's win with a 7-6, 6-3 victory over a Spaniard, No. 80 Pedro Nieto. Spanish tennis players, who grow up playing on clay tennis courts, are often associated with utilizing heavy-topspin strokes, and Nieto was no exception.
"I saved set point in the first set," Walter said. "It was really close.... He was just playing with a lot of spin--it was really tough, really intense."
Nieto's wicked spin often forced Walter to be stuck behind the baseline in long rallies. To counter, Duke head coach Jay Lapidus instructed the French native to play more assertively.
"I was much more aggressive in the tiebreaker," Walter said.
He would go on to win the tiebreaker 7-2, and continued to trade strokes with Nieto in the second set.
"I won 6-3, but he was even more intense than the first set," Walter said. "We had so many rallies.... I saved between 10 and 15 break points, that's how difficult it was."
In order to get himself off the baseline, Walter took command of the net by charging the net after each serve.
"Coach told me to play serve and volley, so [I played] serve and volley two or three times in every game."
Preceding Walter's victory, the Blue Devils picked up singles wins from King, Michael Yani and Jonathan Stokke. King and Yani also produced a key win in doubles. Duke's top doubles duo trailed 4-0 in the tiebreaker before sweeping the next seven points to win a 9-8 decision.
"We had not played together in a long time and it was almost like we had to warm up playing with each other," King said. "Even without it, we probably would have won, but it helped us out as a team."
The win gave Duke confidence and momentum going into singles play.
"It's much better to start with the doubles point for us," Walter said.
The Blue Devils embarrassed Princeton Saturday, playing without King--resting a sore ankle--and still cleaning up 7-0.
The going will not be so easy this week, as the Blue Devils will travel to No. 2 Illinois Feb. 7. The Fighting Illini recently defeated No. 5 Florida State 7-0, and will be Duke's first real test of the season.
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