In the preliminary rounds of the ITA Mideast Regional Tournament, four Blue Devils won their qualifying matches Thursday to reach the main draw. Ludovic Walter, Peter Rodrigues, Jason Zimmermann and Jonathan Stokke all received byes to the round of 64, and 10 Blue Devils will play Friday.
“It was a very good day for us,” head coach Jay Lapidus said. “It’s the first time we’ve ever had 10 guys in the tournament.”
Ned Samuelson, Peter Shults, Alex Stone and Stefan Rozycki each won two matches Thursday to advance to the main draw, which will be held at North Carolina and Duke. The only Blue Devil not to advance to the main draw was Vincent Perna, who lost to William Noblitt of N.C. State in straight sets. The other four, however, won relatively easily, Lapidus said.
The only match that went to three sets was Stone’s second, in which he defeated Andrew Searle of UNC-Greensboro. Searle took the first set, 7-5, but the freshman came back to defeat his opponent in the next two sets.
“The freshmen have been improving very quickly and doing a nice job for us,” Lapidus said. “They have added a lot to the team.
“I hope that somebody will have a good weekend, a breakthrough weekend. If someone can get into Sunday or Monday, I’ll be really pleased.”
Duke’s best chance to advance late into the tournament is second-seeded Walter, who sits behind top-seeded Izak van der Merwe of Old Dominion.
Walter played in the USTA Men’s Future Tournament in Texas Wednesday against Justin Bower, who has been ranked as high as 180th in the world. To enter the main draw, Walter had to earn the wildcard entry by winning five straight games, which he did. Even though Walter lost in straight sets, 6-4, 7-6 to Bower, the match helped, Walter pick up his game.
“It proves to him that he’s good enough to play against very strong players,” assistant coach Jon Neeter said. “For him to play against players above college level makes his game adapt and evolve to a higher level. He has to attack more and basically raise the level of his game to that of his competition, which he did.”
During August and September, Walter had not played a single competitive match, which he said had left him rusty. With the six matches he played under his belt, however, Walter enters the ITA tournament with greater confidence.
“Throughout that week, I was playing better and better,” Walter said. “It’s important you have your routine. So, I got that back [at Futures]... I feel ready for this tournament. We’re playing indoors, and that’s my favorite surface.”
Walter received a bye for the first round and thus, will play his first match of the ITA tournament Friday at 5 p.m. The matches at Duke are being held at Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center throughout the day.
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