Duke seemed to have two different men’s tennis teams this weekend. The first team came out Saturday afternoon against No. 25 Wake Forest (15-5, 7-3 in the ACC) and lacked drive, falling 6-1 to the underdog Demon Deacons. But the team regained its fire Sunday, easily handling Virginia Tech.
Even Duke’s top player, third-ranked Ludovic Walter, struggled Saturday and was upset by No. 80 Derrick Spice 6-4, 6-3.
“We just didn’t show up yesterday,” head coach Jay Lapidus said. “I really don’t know what happened. It’s maybe one of the top five worst matches we’ve played in the last 15 years.”
After a good night’s sleep, the real Blue Devils emerged at Ambler Tennis Stadium Sunday as fifth-ranked Duke (18-4, 8-2) defeated No. 48 Virginia Tech (13-10, 4-6) 6-1.
“It seemed like we got back on the right track today,” Lapidus said. “Hopefully we got our one real bad match out of our system and it won’t happen again.”
Playing the last regular-season matches of their college careers against Virginia Tech, Jason Zimmermann and Peter Shults made their Senior Day count.
Zimmermann clinched the team’s victory with a gritty 7-5, 6-2 win over Adel Abbas. Abbas labored during the second set after the first set lasted longer than any other set on the day.
“The further the match went along the better I felt and the more comfortable I felt,” Zimmermann said.”
Lapidus was quick to compliment the senior and said his return to the court is important for the entire team.
“Zimmermann did a good job because he hasn’t been playing singles for us,” Lapidus said of his senior, who hasn’t played singles since March 16. “Jason’s won a lot of big matches for us, he can definitely play under pressure.”
After breezing to a 1-0 lead by sweeping all three doubles matches, Duke found itself in trouble when Stephen Amritraj twisted his knee and fell to the ground screaming midway through his first set. He was diagnosed with a sprained right knee and was forced to retire. Lapidus said the injury is not serious and hopes Amritraj will return for the ACC Championships.
With the match knotted at one, Shults took it upon himself to make sure the Hokies never took the lead, dispatching of Alexei Sergeev 6-2, 6-1.
Duke never looked back by winning the next four singles matches to knock off the Hokies easily. Walter rebounded from his Saturday loss in strong fashion, taking down No. 79 Stephane Rod 6-4, 6-4.
In the closest match of the day, Jonathan Stokke was forced into a third set after Arvid Puranen broke serve to win the second. Stokke rebounded quickly to finish off the match and give the Blue Devils their sixth point 6-4, 5-7, 6-1.
“I think everyone came out here today with the right attitude and right frame of mind,” Zimmermann said.
Lapidus said he believes schoolwork and having played four matches in the previous eight days tired his team out leading up to Saturday’s match.
“I think against Wake Forest it wasn’t that we weren’t ready for it,” Shults said. “I think our legs were just a slight bit off, we had just had a lot of matches in a row.”
The team will rest up this week going into the ACC Championships April 21 to 24. Lapidus said these two matches could be good for his team going into the postseason.
“I think the whole year we’ve played well,” Lapidus said. “[The Wake Forest match] was a little wake-up call going into the ACC Tournament. We can not take anything for granted.”
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