The men's tennis team, ranked No. 8 in preseason polls, will begin play in the ACC Indoor tournament tomorrow in Winston-Salem, NC. Head coach Jay Lapidus will bring approximately half his team to the competition, looking to get his players ready for the dual-match season beginning at the end of the month.
"This is not a whole huge pressure event," Lapidus said. "But it should be a good warmup event to get the season started."
The Blue Devils will bring five singles players and two doubles teams to the event. Playing singles for the Blue Devils will be Jonathan Stokke, Jason Zimmerman, Peter Rodrigues, Chris Brown and Peter Shults. Rodrigues and Stokke will team up to form one doubles team, while Brown will play with Ryan Heinberg as the other.
Every ACC team will bring players to the tournament, and Duke should find plenty of competition. Though the Blue Devils will be the highest ranked team there, the ACC has five other nationally ranked teams. Clemson is 26th, Wake Forest is tied at 30th, Florida State is 32nd, Georgia Tech is 40th and North Carolina is 50th.
Lapidus hopes that his team will use this event to spark what should be a successful dual-match season.
"Starting out as number eight in the preseason is really strong," he said. "I'm excited to see how well we can do this season, but I think we'll be pretty strong."
Lapidus cites the Blue Devils' doubles teams as the strength of his unit. Duke's pair of Zimmermann and Ludovic Walter is the second-ranked doubles team in the country. Walter is also the seventh-ranked individual in the nation.
The Blue Devils open their dual-match season against William & Mary January 29th.
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