A day after Florida earned its first-ever trip to the NCAA basketball championship game, the Gators' men's tennis team showcased depth that would have made Billy Donovan jealous, knocking off Duke 4-2 behind the strength of its three All-America singles players.
Defending NCAA singles champion Jeff Morrison outlasted Doug Root in three sets (6-2, 4-6, 6-1) and second-ranked Florida snapped Duke's four-match winning streak in a tense matchup of top-five teams Sunday in Gainesville.
Said Florida coach Ian Duvenhage: "It was a war."
The No. 5 Blue Devils (13-5), one day removed from a 5-2 win over Florida State in Tallahassee, led 1-0 after winning the doubles point, but the Gators (17-2) exploded for wins at the top four singles positions to take their 14th straight victory at Ring Tennis Complex.
UF's Justin O'Neal and Nathan Overholser, both top-16 finishers at last year's NCAA tournament, won in straight sets over Ramsey Smith and Andres Pedroso at No. 2 and No. 3 singles, respectively. Olivier Levant, a lefthanded sophomore from Paris, clinched the match with a hard-fought 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 victory over Joel Spicher at No. 4 singles.
Marko Cerenko was Duke's only winner in singles, knocking off Troy Hahn 6-3, 6-4 at No. 6; play was stopped at the No. 5 position with Porter Jones trailing Florida's Dylan Mann 2-1 in the third set.
At No. 1 doubles, the eighth-ranked tandem of Root and Smith lost convincingly to Morrison and Overholser (8-3), but Duke got wins at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, earning the point when Jones and Michael Yanni edged Mann and Marcos Asse in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (7-1).
But the strong start was not enough to hold back the talented Gators, who proved they are even deeper than their three All-America players. Florida improved to 10-0 when Levant wins at No. 4 singles.
"I thought it would be a tough match either way," Duvenhage said. "I felt strongly that we could beat them even though we lost the doubles point."
It was just Florida's second win in its last nine tries against Duke, although the Gators lead the all-time series 20-13.
The loss capped a difficult weekend for the Blue Devils, who notched their 20th straight ACC win Saturday against No. 53 Florida State.
Despite surprising three-set losses by Smith and Root at No. 1 and 2 singles, Duke captured the four other singles matches in straight sets to improve to 3-0 in conference play. The Blue Devils, who have not lost an ACC match since 1997, face N.C. State Wednesday in Raleigh.
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