Not bad for only four days of practice.
The eighth-ranked men's tennis team travelled to Winston-Salem, N.C., last weekend for the Atlantic Coast Conference Indoors. They netted some impressive early season results for their first competition of the spring: Freshman Doug Root and sophomore Jordan Wile teamed to win the doubles championship.
In the singles bracket, junior Alberto Brause advanced to the finals, and sophomore Dmitry Muzyka lost in the semifinals.
Traditionally, the tournament serves as a precursor to the highly competitive ACC team season and as a transition from the individual play of the fall semester. The Indoors, still played in the individual format, is largely used as a gauge for the strengths and weaknesses of each team.
"I had mixed feelings [about the results]," Duke coach Jay Lapidus said. "It wasn't our best tournament, but we hadn't had much time to practice. It's a little bit frustrating, because we don't have practice facilities."
Facing a combination of bitterly cold weather and the closing of the IM Building for resurfacing, the Blue Devils managed only four practice days before the tournament. Lapidus expressed hope that the amount of available practice time would increase in the near future as the weather improves.
The Blue Devils managed a strong outing over the weekend despite their rustiness.
Brause's performance was particularly impressive. In the semifinals, he cruised past Tripp Phillips, the number-one singles seed from the University of North Carolina.
Lapidus felt this win signalled the potential strength of Duke's overall team lineup.
Brause's winning streak came to an end in the finals when he fell, 6-4, 6-2, to Frenchman Benjamin Cassaigne, who plays for Georgia Tech.
Cassaigne was the Blue Devil killer of the day, having vanquished Muzyka, the tournament's number-one seed, in the semifinals. Muzyka is a key to Duke's team, as a returning All-ACC selection and the 1996 ACC Rookie of the Year.
"Cassaigne is a solid all-court player," Root said of his one-time doubles foe. "He was just playing great tennis the whole tournament. You had to come out and play your best to beat him."
Also playing well for the Blue Devils was the doubles team featuring Root and Wile who, though extended to three sets in the finals, prevailed 6-1, 6-7, 6-3. After a spectacular first set, Root and Wile suffered through mental lapses in losing the second.
The tandem pulled their game together and gained a much needed service break for victory in the third set. Root and Wile, who paired to win the Rolex Tournement earlier in the fall, should provide solid doubles play during the regular season.
"They're really on a roll," Lapidus said. "Their chemistry is really good and that's going to help us a lot this year."
After seeing a glimpse of the Blue Devils' potential for the upcoming dual match campaign, their coach is now able to focus on developing that potential to fruition in the ACC team competition.
"Hopefully the weather will clear up so we can get some good practice time in," Lapidus said. "We'll do the best we can."
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