At the ACC Indoor tournament this weekend, the No. 8 men's tennis team showed signs that they are ready for what will be a tough dual-match season.
The highlight of the weekend for the Blue Devils was the double's team of freshman Peter Rodrigues and sophomore Jonathan Stokke. Rodrigues and Stokke defeated the top doubles teams from Georgia Tech and North Carolina on their way to the finals. There they downed Wake Forest's top duo of Brett Ross and Derek Spice 8-6 to capture the title.
"Those guys played a really great tournament," head coach Jay Lapidus said. "They beat some really tough teams and they've been playing great together."
The tandem's toughest match of the weekend came in the quarterfinals. There they traded punches with Georgia Tech's Scott Schnugg and Josa Muguruza, the tournament's top-seeded team, before emerging victorious 9-8 (6).
"It was an intense match," Rodrigues said. "We were lucky to pull ahead in the middle of the match and we played a good tiebreaker, staying really focused."
Stokke also competed in the singles bracket, advancing to the quarterfinals before losing 7-6 (3), 6-2 to Virginia's Doug Stewart, the second seed and eventual singles champion.
"Jonathan beat a couple of pretty good players," Lapidus said. "He's been working hard the last couple of months and the results are beginning to show. He played extremely well in doubles and I'm really pleased with the way his level has been getting better and better."
Chris Brown and Jason Zimmermann also competed in the singles bracket for Duke. Brown fell to Virginia's Stewart 6-4, 6-4 two rounds before the quarterfinals. Zimmermann won his first two matches to advance to the round of 16, but had to withdraw from the tournament due to illness.
Before play began, Lapidus labeled the tournament a "warm-up" event to get his team ready for its dual-match season beginning at the end of the month. He stuck with that theme as the tournament ended, but he was nonetheless pleased with his team's performance.
"For having only practiced about a week, we looked really good," he said. "I'm pleased with the way it went."
Lapidus is now intent on getting his team ready for its first dual-match of the season against William & Mary on January 29th.
"We'll be ready to go for William & Mary," he said. "I'm not sure what they're ranked but they're potentially a top 20 program. We're going to work hard on our conditioning over the next week and half. We need to be ready for them."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.