This time, Ludovic Walter was ready for Izak van der Merwe.
After falling to the seventh-ranked South African in the fall, the sixth-ranked Walter bounced back to defeat van der Merwe in straight sets Friday. Led by Walter, the No. 9 men’s tennis team (2-0) swept No. 59 Old Dominion (2-3) at the Sheffield Tennis Center in their second match of the indoor season, 7-0.
“The last time we played each other, [van der Merwe] served really well and I had trouble returning his serves,” Walter said. “This time, I returned a lot better, I pressed [the net] well on both my forehand and backhand, and I served pretty well.”
Down 2-0 in the first set, Walter succeeded in breaking van der Merwe’s powerful serve twice to take the set 6-4. Walter then won the second set, 6-3.
“After I broke him back and broke him again, the momentum changed, and in the second set he was kind of pissed at himself,” Walter said.
The rest of the singles matches went just as smoothly, as five of the six Blue Devils won in straight sets.
“I’m pleased to see the way the players are coming together,” head coach Jay Lapidus said.
Junior Stephen Amritraj continued his strong play after a disappointing sophomore season, dominating his opponent Henrique Cancado, 6-3, 6-2. Lapidus attributed Amritraj’s success to an improved serve and an increased focus on attacking the net.
“I didn’t really have a great year last year,” Amritraj said. “I’ve been a lot more relaxed this year and feel like I’m playing a lot better because of that.”
The sole Blue Devil loss came in a 9-8 tiebreaker when the Monarchs upset the 15th-ranked doubles team of Peter Rodrigues and Jonathan Stokke. But Duke’s No. 2 and No. 3 doubles teams pulled out wins, securing the doubles point to begin the competition.
“That was the one little glitch there,” Lapidus said of Duke’s lone defeat. “We actually played pretty well—it wasn’t a bad loss. It was just one of those things where they came up with some big shots at the end and beat us.”
Inclement weather forced the cancellation of Duke’s match against No. 3 Florida Sunday. Lapidus said his team would have liked to face the Gators at home before traveling to No. 5 Illinois and Notre Dame next weekend.
“We were looking forward to playing Florida today, because I think we’re playing well,” Lapidus said. “I would have liked to have had an opportunity to play them, but Mother Nature stepped in.”
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