Duke took down Kentucky a year ago in Lexington, so the Wildcats were able to exact a bit of payback Sunday in Durham.
The Wildcats outlasted the Blue Devils 4-3 at Sheffield Tennis Center, capturing the victory when Enzo Wallart outlasted Duke's Josh Levine 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (1) at fifth singles. Playing three freshmen in the lineup for the second time this weekend, the Blue Devils came up just short of their second victory to open spring competition.
Duke (1-1) jumped out to an early 1-0 lead after three tight doubles matches. Levine and freshman Ryan Dickerson took down Wallart and Ryotaro Matsumura 7-5, and the Blue Devils secured the doubles point on the top court when sophomore Nicolas Alvarez and freshman Vincent Lin climbed all the way out of a 3-0 hole to rally past the Wildcat pairing of Nils Ellefsen and Kevin Lai 7-6 (5). The third match—which pitted Duke's T.J. Pura and Catalin Mateas against William Bushamuka and Charles Minc—turned into a marathon affair, with the Blue Devil duo ultimately claiming a 7-6 (7) victory.
Kentucky struck back right away in singles play, as Ellefsen dispatched Lin 6-2, 6-2 on court three. But Lin's classmate Adrian Chamdani put Duke right back in front with a 6-4, 6-4 win at the sixth position against Austin Hussey.
That lead was not safe for long either, though, as Pura faltered at the No. 2 singles spot. The Duke captain could not escape a 4-0 deficit in the opening set, and fell 1-6, 4-6 contest to Matsumura. The Wildcats then surged ahead behind an upset victory by No. 79 Bushamuka, who took down No. 12 Alvarez in straight sets, 6-2, 7-6 (5), on court one.
All eyes then turned to court five, where Levine—after rattling off five straight games to capture the first set—could not close out Wallart, who won six straight points in the tiebreaker to bring home the victory for Kentucky.
With the outcome decided, Mateas closed the gap to just a single point with a win in three sets against Trey Yates at fourth singles, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. After battling through injury for much of the fall semester, the freshman is now sporting a 2-0 ledger after his first two dual matches.
Duke will now prepare to host a regional for the ITA Kick-off Weekend, as No. 21 California, No. 22 San Diego and No. 25 Vanderbilt descend on Durham for play beginning Saturday.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.