The eighth-ranked Duke men's tennis team swept No. 49 Notre Dame 7-0 Sunday to improve to 3-0.
Ludovic Walter and Jason Zimmermann defeated the 18th-ranked pair of Luis Haddock and Ryan Keckley 8-5, while Stephen Amritraj and Peter Rodrigues held off the Irish's Brent D'Amico and Matthew Scott in a tiebreaker 9-8 (5). Phillip King and Jonathan Stokke won their doubles match for Duke by a score of 8-5.
Victorious for the Blue Devils in singles action on Sunday were King, a straight set winner, 6-1, 6-3; Christopher Brown, whose opponent retired; and Rodrigues, 6-3, 6-2. Stokke, Zimmermann and Walter each added victories after Duke had already claimed the team decision.
Saturday's match had been dubbed as as a battle of two top-10 teams, but Duke downed ninth-ranked Texas A&M by a 5-2 margin.
The Blue Devils started the day off strong, winning all three of their doubles matches to earn the doubles point.
Most notable was the victory by Walter and Zimmermann over the Aggies' Lester Cook and Ante Matijevic. Walter and Zimmermann, the nation's second ranked doubles pair, upset the No. 1 Texas A&M team.
It was a closely contested match, as momentum switched back and forth many times. The Texas A&M team was twice up a break and was serving for the match when the Blue Devils broke serve and went on to victory.
"We did a good job hanging in there and coming back," head coach Jay Lapidus said.
Tied at eight games a piece and on serve in the tiebreaker, Walter and Zimmermann won six straight points to take a 6-1 lead that they would not relinquish.
"That match was up and down, and it had a lot of swings," Zimmermann said. "We stayed positive and were able to come out with the win."
In the other two doubles matches, Blue Devils' King and Stokke won 8-5, while Amritraj and Rodrigues defeated their opponent 8-4.
In singles action, King beat 17th-ranked Lester Cook in straight sets 7-6 (8-6), 7-5. In the second set, King was up a break 4-3 before losing his next service game. However, King took advantage of an obviously tired opponent and won the next three games.
"I saw how he was playing," King said. "He was more pressing than he should have been. He was going for a lot and I was going to keep making him do that."
Stokke won his singles match against Texas A&M's Mohamed Dakki 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. Zimmermann and Rodrigues both defeated their opponents quickly 6-3, 6-3 and 6-2, 6-1 respectively.
Earning victories for the Aggies were Brett Joelson and 19th-ranked Ante Matijevic. Matijevic upset Duke's Walter, who is ranked seventh in the nation in singles. The match pairing two hard-hitting opponents with big serves ended in a third set tiebreaker 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6).
Overall Lapidus was pleased with his team's performance against Texas A&M, who they will play again at the first round of the National Team Indoor Championships February 5th in Seattle, Washington.
"I thought we played really well," Lapidus said. "We are solid throughout our lineup. We are a tough team."
King also felt that the team gave a good effort and was looking forward to the championships this weekend.
"I was really impressed," King said. "We didn't play incredible but we can only get better. I think we can improve a lot and I don't see anything shy of a championship."
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