At Duke’s second-to-last home match, the Blue Devils powered through long matches to gain two solid victories.
Duke (16-3, 5-1 in the ACC) added two more conference wins to its collection this weekend by beating Clemson (8-9, 4-2) and Georgia Tech (8-9, 3-4) at home.
“Winning our last three matches and only dropping one point in those matches is a great rebound,” said head coach Ramsey Smith. “I think we’re playing really well. These matches aren’t easy, but we’re competing well and we’re coming through when it matters.”
On Friday, the Blue Devils swept the Tigers 7-0, winning all nine of their matches. Even though the doubles matches began neck-and-neck, all three duos toughed out victories. The pairing of freshman Raphael Hemmeler and sophomore Cale Hammond moved up to the second spot after recording five consecutive wins at the third doubles position. They are now 7-0 as a team, and Duke has won the last seven doubles points against their opponents—an advantage that is key to their victories.
In singles, all six courts notched first set wins. Hemmeler was the first to finish, quickly dispatching Hunter Harrington 6-1, 6-2 and moving to 8-1 in dual match play at the No. 5 position. A victory by senior Torsten Wiestoka and another by junior Henrique Cunha closed out the match for the Blue Devils.
On Sunday, Duke faced more of a challenge against the Yellow Jackets. The third doubles tandem of Jason Tahir and Fred Saba were the first to finish with a quick 8-3 victory. Hammond and Hemmeler doubles held a lead in the start of the match before falling behind 4-7. The duo, however, regrouped and came back to win the match 9-8 in a tiebreaker and clinched the doubles point for the Blue Devils.
Cunha and Mengel, the nation’s No. 26 pairing, had the opposite scenario, as they dominated the start of the match and broke away for a 7-4 lead before allowing Georgia Tech’s No. 7 team of Kevin King and Juan Spir to come back and win 9-7.
“I felt like doubles clicked today,” Smith said. “It’s such a big point because we feel so good about our singles, and if we can get that doubles point, we know we’re in the driver’s seat.”
The fight Duke faced in the doubles matches carried over into the singles round with a few close matches. Three courts went into first set tiebreakers and there were five tiebreakers played out overall. Hemmeler was the first to finish with a 6-0, 6-3 victory, followed by Tahir at No. 6 with a 6-3, 7-5 win. Saba won 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 against Juan Melian and solidified the victory for the Blue Devils. Mengel was the only player to lose his singles match in two tiebreakers.
Even after Duke had closed out its victory, courts one and three were still fighting. On the first court, No. 6 Cunha took on No. 11 King and the match was taken into a super tiebreaker. Cunha pulled out a 7-6 (7-1), 5-7, 1-0 (10-6) victory over his opponent and capped the weekend with a 3-1 record overall.
“Since I’m at No. 1, I’m playing good players every time,” Cunha said. “It doesn’t matter the other team’s ranking—they always have a good No. 1 player. I’m very proud I could win both matches this weekend.”
Alongside him, Wiestoka battled back from a slow start in the match—saving four match points—and managed a comeback win of 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-0), not allowing Dusan Milijevic to score a point in the final tiebreaker.
“We’re winning the big points at the end of matches and at the end of sets, and I think that shows that the guys have a lot of confidence and we’re competing well,” Smith said.
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