In a departure from a trend of recent ACC matches, No. 6 Duke soared in singles competition to defeat No. 26 Wake Forest, 6-1, Wednesday afternoon at Leighton Tennis Stadium.
The Blue Devils (13-5, 5-1 in the ACC) had struggled to transition from doubles to singles competition in their recent matches against Florida State and Miami. In the two dual matches, Duke lost a combined seven singles matches, and Duke players captured more than three games in the first set of their singles matches just twice.
But against the Demon Deacons (13-6, 5-2), the Blue Devils controlled singles play.
"We're trying to stay mentally focused at the beginning of singles," head coach Jay Lapidus said. "We need to put an exclamation point on the doubles, and we did a better job of that today."
Joey Atas-who entered the match with two straight conference losses-clinched the win at the fourth flight for the Blue Devils against Brett Ross in a tough three-setter, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
"Joey did a good job of fighting," Lapidus said. "He did a good job of being aggressive. We have a lot of confidence in him and he came through for us today."
Ludovic Walter, Duke's No. 1 player, topped Wake Forest's No. 13 Todd Paul, 6-2, 7-5. With the win Walter, the fourth-ranked player in the country, tallied his 119th career win, tying the school's record set by current assistant coach Ramsey Smith in 2001.
After Duke had already claimed the dual match, leading 5-1, No. 3 Peter Rodrigues defeated Cory Parr in a close baseline battle, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4.
"They had long 15-20 ball rallies and a good level of tennis," Lapidus said. "Peter's continually winning for us. He's doing awesome."
Walter will go for the career-win record Friday at BC.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.