After two straight-set victories over top-10 opponents during the indoor season, Ludovic Walter faced his first true test Saturday.
Unranked Mark Dietrich forced Walter to play a third-set tiebreaker, but the junior prevailed to lift Duke to a 6-1 win over No. 22 Tennessee in the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.
Walter, who had difficulty handling Dietrich’s serve, won the first set in a tiebreaker but lost the next five games and the second set, 6-3.
“He had one of the biggest serves I’ve ever seen,” said Walter, who is now 5-0 in singles. “He played really well for five games. He didn’t miss any balls and made every return.”
Both players held serve throughout the third set, and Walter took the tiebreaker to clinch the team victory for the Blue Devils (4-1).
“Ludovic usually rises to the occasion,” head coach Jay Lapidus said. “He wins a lot of close matches. Ludo held in there, and to his credit, he showed a lot of composure.”
Walter was not the only Duke player to successfully win a third set tiebreaker against the Volunteers (4-2).
Down 5-3 in the third-set, No. 52 Jonathan Stokke fought off four match points and came back to break Morgan Wilson’s serve on his way to a 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (6) victory.
“I felt like I just needed to keep myself in the points,” Stokke said. “I kind of used my energy to scrap out a couple.”
Peter Rodrigues, Peter Shults and Charles Brezac outplayed their opponents and won in straight sets.
Stephen Amritraj suffered the only loss of the match, dropping his third consecutive singles contest. Lapidus attributed Amritraj’s recent woes to a combination of tough matchups with players that hit strong passing shots and his junior’s dependency on his serve.
“Stephen always brings a lot of energy out, and he’s going to keep working,” Rodrigues said. “The wins will come.”
The Blue Devils entered the match 7-5 in doubles, but Lapidus decided to mix up two of his teams. For the first time this season, 2004 ITA Indoor Champions, Walter and Jason Zimmermann, played together during Saturday’s match.
The other new pairing featured Amritraj and Shults, while the team of Rodrigues and Stokke remained intact. The changes worked, as the Blue Devils swept the Volunteers 3-0 to secure the doubles point.
“We didn’t feel like our No. 2, Stephen and Jason, were all that comfortable. Their styles weren’t really meshing that well together,” Lapidus said of the team he decided to split. “A bunch of guys came to me and said that we maybe needed to make a change, so we’ve been practicing different combinations.”
The Blue Devils travel next to the ITA Indoor Championships, which begin Thursday, where they will face the nation’s other elite teams before beginning ACC play March 2.
“I feel like we’re ready,” Lapidus said. “I feel like we’re playing well. Everyone there is good—it’s going to be a tough tournament.”
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