Blue Devils ousted early at All-American Tourney

For the second tournament in a row, men's tennis posted disappointing singles performances at the All-American Tennis Championships in Tulsa, OK.

In the first of three national singles tournaments this year, senior Ludovic Walter was upset in the second round while junior Joey Atas fell in the first round of the main draw. Senior Jonathon Stokke also lost in the first round.

Entering the tournament as the No. 2 seed, Walter was upset in the second round by freshman Matt Bruch of Stanford by a score of 6-4, 6-2.

"My serve was not good during that match at all, and that's a big part of my game," Walter said. "[Bruch] played with a lot of confidence."

Both Walter and head coach Jay Lapidus said the cold, windy conditions greatly affected the match.

"The courts were very, very slow, so it wasn't very conducive to success for Ludovic because Ludovic likes a little bit faster court for his big serve, and his big ground stroke lost a little bit of zip in the cold weather," Lapidus said.

Atas, seeded 27th in the tournament, lost 6-3, 6-4 in the first round to Rice's Robert Searle. Jonathan Stokke, who was awarded a spot in the main draw despite falling in his last qualifying match, lost in the first round to 16th-seeded Devin Mullings of Ohio State in straight sets. Stokke rebounded from the loss by winning two consolation matches before falling in the quarterfinals of the consolation bracket to Alex Slovic of Washington.

Duke's doubles team of Atas and Stokke entered the tournament with a six-match unbeaten streak after winning the Southern Intercollegiates and two qualifying round matches. But in the first round of the main tournament, Atas and Stokke fell to the third-seeded tandem of Luke Shields and Thomas Schoeck. The Blue Devil duo had the Boise State team down to its final point, leading the tiebreaker, 6-1, before falling.