For the second consecutive season, Ryan Rizza of the No. 3 Virginia men’s tennis team pulled off a comeback in the deciding singles match against No. 5 Duke, leading the Cavaliers to a thrilling 4-3 victory at Sheffield Tennis Center in Durham Friday.
Rizza, down 3-2 and a break to the Blue Devils’ Stephen Amritraj, aggressively attacked Amritraj both on the serve and the return to reel off four straight games and win 6-7 (5-7), 6-0, 6-3 at the No. 2 singles position. Rizza pulled off a nearly identical comeback last season, defeating Duke’s Ludovic Walter at No. 1 after Walter was up 3-2 and a break in the third set.
“I just tried to step up my level,” said Rizza, the No. 59 player in the nation.
“He was changing up his serve well but, I eventually just got onto it, and started returning better.
“Duke has a great program, I mean look at all the banners they have here—it’s ridiculous. To come and beat them inside is great for our team.”
Amritraj, ranked No. 76, was visibly upset after blowing a chance to avenge his squad’s two losses to Virginia (19-2, 7-0 in the ACC) one year ago.
“There was two really long games, and he happened to edge out both of them,” Amritraj said. “Basically, he picked up his level when he needed to.”
The match began outdoors, and the ominous weather paralleled the sub-par doubles play by the Blue Devils (17-2, 7-1). Playing with an aggressive, on-top-of-the-net style, UVa clinched the doubles point with easy victories at first and second doubles. Then the drizzle turned into a downpour and the teams moved inside.
Walter, who looked sluggish under the gray clouds, came out firing under the roof for Duke at the first singles position. Facing No. 11 Doug Stewart, the third-ranked Walter minimized his unforced errors, using a dazzling array of punishing groundstrokes and finesse volleys to win 6-4, 7-5. Walter’s victory tied the match at 3-3, setting up the deciding battle between Rizza and Amritraj.
At the fourth singles spot, Duke’s Peter Rodrigues got off to a slow start before evening the match at one set apiece. Rodrigues then took a lead in the deciding set, but Virginia’s Treat Huey broke down Rodrigues’ baseline consistency by coming to net more often. Huey ultimately prevailed to put UVa up 3-2.
“We felt like we had a decent chance, P-Rod had a chance, Stephen was up a break in the third set,” Duke head coach Jay Lapidus said, “but we just didn’t play well enough, especially in doubles. This is disappointing, but it shows we can hang with the top-five teams.”
The Blue Devils’ Jonathan Stokke, ranked No. 118, gave one of the day’s finest efforts at the No. 3 position, upsetting No. 17 Somdev Devvarman 7-5, 7-5. Stokke relentlessly attacked his opponent by coming to the net whenever possible, and two timely breaks at 5-5 in each set led to the straight-set victory.
At No. 5, Blue Devil freshman Charles Brezac stayed close with Virginia’s Marko Miklo, but Brezac eventually succumbed to his fellow European 3-6, 4-6. Senior Peter Shults, two-time ACC Player of the Week this season, defeated his opponent with ease at No. 6, winning 6-1, 6-1.
After losing to the Cavaliers, the Blue Devils went to Florida and defeated Miami 4-3 Sunday.
The match was not the hard-fought clash that the score might indicate, as not one singles encounter went to a third set. Duke clinched the doubles point by winning at the No. 1 and No. 3 positions, and then Lapidus altered the singles lineup by resting Amritraj, who injured his wrist slightly in the loss to Virginia.
Lapidus compensated by moving the next four players up one spot and inserting freshman Ned Samuelson at No. 6, who won along with Stokke at No. 2 and Shults at No. 5.
Miami’s Josh Cohen, ranked No. 120, had the upset of the day by defeating Walter at the No. 1 position, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4. Although fatigue from his hard-fought match seems like a logical explanation for the loss, Lapidus believes there is more to it.
“Men’s tennis is very deep, so number 120 is still a darn good player,” Lapidus said. “The conditions were slow, which were more conducive to [Cohen’s] game, but every match at No. 1 is difficult and everyone is gunning for a player like Ludovic.”
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