One week after being named the eighth-best team in college tennis, Duke could not play up to its ranking as the Blue Devils lost to No. 22 Texas and 39th-ranked Miami on consecutive days.
The men's tennis team began the Hidden Dual Tournament by soundly defeating No. 48 Michigan 11-1 on the first day of play. Duke won all of its singles matches and dropped only one doubles match against the Wolverines.
"We played very well all around on Saturday against the Michigan team," head coach Jay Lapidus said.
But that's as long as the impressive play lasted.
Against the Longhorns, Duke lost 8-4 as Texas won five of eight singles matches and three of four doubles matches.
"Texas was a very good team," Lapidus said. "There were a lot of close matches and a couple tough tie-breakers that day."
Duke's two ranked players, senior Ludovic Walter and junior Jonathan Stokke, failed to win either of their matches in the loss. No. 9 Walter lost to No. 44 Travis Helgeson in three sets and No. 20 Stokke was defeated by the Longhorns' Callum Beale in straight sets.
"Ludovic lost a really tough match to a guy from Texas," Lapidus said. "He usually struggles outdoors at first. He'll be better when we move back indoors."
In Monday's matchup against the Hurricanes, Duke suffered a lopsided defeat, 6-1, as they could not capture any singles matches with both Walter and Stokke taking the day off.
"We didn't play our top two players so that's a pretty big deficit," Lapidus said.
Even after two straight upset losses, Lapidus was unfazed.
"We've just had one practice," he said. "I'm confident we'll continue to improve as our season continues."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.