The men's tennis team ended its fall season in a big way this weekend, capturing its first-ever ITA National Indoor Championship on Saturday in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The only two Blue Devils competing, partners Ludovic Walter and Jason Zimmerman, were crowned doubles champions. Walter exceeded singles expectations by advancing to the semifinals in singles play.
"I knew that [Ludovic Walter and Jason Zimmerman] were playing well, but I didn't know they were playing that well," head coach Jay Lapidus said. "They went through the field pretty handily."
The pair had been preparing their game since the regional qualifiers two weeks ago.
"We knew what we needed to work on as a team, and we worked hard on those things for the past two weeks," Zimmerman said. "We built up our confidence by winning in the regional tournament."
Walter competed in doubles action on Friday with Zimmerman, defeating Clemson's Jermaine Jenkins and Nathan Thompson (8-6), marking the Duke duo's second victory over Clemson's tandem this year.
"We split to them last year," Lapidus said. "The fact that we beat them twice is a good indicator [for ACC match play]."
Duke rolled in Saturday's doubles matches, knocking off semifinal opponents Andrew Colombo and Gabor Zoltan Pelva from Auburn (8-5). Walter was obviously not fatigued for his doubles matches on Saturday after playing numerous singles and doubles matches on Friday, as well as a singles match on Saturday. Walter and Zimmerman won the crown by upending Old Dominion's third-seeded Zoltan Csanadi and Izak van der Merwe (8-6), who competed in the finals for the second year in a row.
"[Zimmerman and Walter] played really well," Lapidus said. "It's an exciting time for us since this is our first national championship ever."
The Duke tandem downed three top-ten ranked pairs on their road to the championship.
"We were able to get a good draw," said Zimmerman, "and we played well after the quarterfinals. We took it one match at a time. Things just started clicking. We played solid and came through in the end."
Expectations are even higher for Duke's tandem now. Zimmerman and Walter started playing together last spring and have shown an immense amount of improvement.
"It's amazing how far these two have come since last spring. I think they have established themselves as the top doubles team [in the nation], if not, definitely one of the top two," Lapidus said.
Also on Friday, Walter won twice in singles action, first defeating eighth-seeded Hamid Mirzadeh of Florida (7-5, 6-0). He then knocked off Texas A&M's Lester Cook (3-6, 7-6, 6-4) to advance to Saturday's singles semifinals.
"This year I was nine and one indoors; I always play pretty well indoors," Walter noted. "You never know what can happen indoors because the courts are really fast. I just wanted to win a few matches [in singles play]."
Walter did not fare as well in Saturday's semifinal singles match. The Blue Devil fell to third-seeded Bo Hodge of Georgia (6-2, 6-2). But Walter ended the tournament proud, finishing with the doubles crown.
"This was a great confidence builder for Zimmerman and Walter as doubles partners, individuals and for our whole team. This bodes well for the team season in the spring. Everyone is making good progress," Lapidus said.
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