SPORTS  |  TENNIS

Duke continues strong road play with victory against Florida State

Duke capped off its second two-destination road trip Sunday with a convincing win at Florida State.
Duke capped off its second two-destination road trip Sunday with a convincing win at Florida State.

After spending the past two weekends on the road, Duke showed no evidence of jet lag when it took the courts in Tallahassee, Fla.

The Blue Devils notched their sixth ACC victory and fourth-straight road win Sunday against Florida State at the Scott Speicher Tennis Center. The Blue Devils proved they could dominate in unknown territory, defeating the Seminoles 5-2 to end their four-match road swing.

No. 14 Duke (14-5, 6-1 in the ACC) secured the doubles point with wins from its top-two doubles teams. Senior Fred Saba and junior Raphael Hemmeler won handily 8-0 against Blake Davis and Dominic Cotrone to kick off the match and set the tone for the Blue Devils.

“Florida State has very good doubles, so we knew that was going to be an important point for us,” head coach Ramsey Smith said. “I thought Rafa and Fred really set the tone by probably playing their best match of the year. They beat a really good team 8-0.”

No. 30 Florida State (15-9, 3-5) did not go down as easily on the other courts. The doubles matches came down to the wire with tiebreaks between both bottom pairs. In the end, sophomore Josh Levine and junior Jason Tahir pulled out a close victory against Cristian Gonzalez Mendez and Marco Nunez, winning the tiebreaker and doubles point for Duke.

“The other two spots were extremely close and there were simultaneous tiebreakers, so we just had to win one of them,” Smith said. “Jason and Josh really stepped up big and came through to win a breaker and clinch the doubles point for us.”

Duke kept its momentum going into singles, taking the first sets at the top-three spots. The first off the court was freshman T.J. Pura with a 6-1, 6-2 decision against João Gauer. Shortly after, Florida State retaliated with a win from Grayson Goldin against Levine 6-1, 6-3.

Saba kept up Duke’s lead with a 6-0, 6-4 victory against C. Gonzalez Mendez. After losing his first set, No. 71 Bruno Semenzato clinched the match for Duke when he came back to defeat Nunez 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. Hemmeler finished off his match soon after, winning in a third set tiebreaker against Davis.

“I though Bruno did a really good job after losing his first set. He gathered himself and played a really good two final sets,” Smith said. "He’s come through for us on clutch occasions recently and he did a great job sealing the match for us.”

Unlike Semenzato, Tahir—ranked 48th in the nation—started out strong at first singles but could not follow through against Cotrone, eventually losing 6-3, 6-7, 5-7.

After a pair of successful road trips, the Blue Devils will return to North Carolina for their next four matches.

“We have won four ACC matches in a row. All on the road and all over the country really going from South Bend to Boston to Miami to Florida State,” Smith said. “I am just really happy with the team chemistry right now and I feel like the guys are all working really hard and we’re preparing well for every single match and then once the match starts were competing well.”

Discussion

Share and discuss “Duke continues strong road play with victory against Florida State” on social media.