There’s nothing like opening weekend.
No. 12 Duke men’s tennis fought its way to two victories in its first two matches against No. 21 Harvard and N.C. Central. To open the Sunday afternoon double-header, Duke overcame a doubles point loss to top Harvard 4-3. Duke’s Pedro Rodenas, Andreja Petrovic, Connor Krug and Remy Dugardin all earned points in the thrilling opening victory.
“It was a heck of a college tennis match,” head coach Ramsey Smith said. “It came down to three matches, and we had to win two.”
After a dominant third set from Petrovic allowed Duke to regain the lead in the contest, Harvard’s Daniel Milavsky defeated his former doubles partner with the Crimson, transfer Cooper Williams, 2-6, 7-6 (10-8), 6-2, effectively putting the match in the hands of Duke’s Connor Krug and Harvard’s Masato Perera on court five.
Krug, in his fourth year with the Blue Devils, stepped up to the plate, clawing back from a 2-4 deficit in the decisive third set to earn a match point on Perera’s serve. After hustling down the line to get to Perera’s shot, Krug utilized his length, pushing the ball for a cross-court shot just inches away from the outstretched arms of the Crimson player.
Once the ball fell in, Krug crumbled to the ground in exhaustion as his teammates jumped on top of him to celebrate.
“Just such a special moment for him,” Smith said. “He's a true senior, and the environment was awesome. I was just really proud of how he played. Connor was the hero today.”
On court one, the aforementioned Williams had four match points of his own in his second-set tiebreak; however, Milavsky raised his level, flying around the court to overcome Williams’ effort to put the match away.
After besting Williams in the second-set tiebreak, Milavsky let out an intense scream, throwing his arms out and holding up the Harvard logo on his chest to his teammates watching on. From there, it was all Milavsky in the third set.
“Tricky position for Cooper today playing his former doubles partner who's playing extremely well,” Smith said. “I thought he fought really well … he came a half-inch short from winning.”
Time will tell if Smith’s intention to challenge his squad with ranked nonconference matches so early in the schedule will pay dividends; nonetheless, Smith can take pride in his team’s performance last weekend, especially in the singles rounds.
“Win or lose, those are the environments we want to be in,” Smith said. “It was just great to see guys step up.”
Perhaps the most difficult barrier of the afternoon for Smith was the integration of five transfers in their first regular-season matches as Blue Devils. According to Smith, this developing chemistry was seen in Duke’s doubles point failure.
“We want to challenge these guys,” Smith said. “It's an experienced group, but they're not experienced playing together so doubles wasn't extremely sharp.”
Following the result against Harvard, Duke turned its attention to the N.C. Central Eagles, incorporating three new players and two new doubles combinations into the starting lineup.
“We have 13 guys on the team that can all play,” Smith said.
Impressive for Duke was freshman Saahith Jayaraman, defeating N.C. Central’s Rodrigo Alves in quick time on court three, 6-1, 6-0.
“Saahith was especially sharp today,” Smith said. “First of many wins for him in his Duke career.”
On court two, junior Gerard Planelles Ripoll bounced back from the earlier loss to defeat Kareem Abdul Hakim 6-2, 6-4, and senior Jake Krug joined his brother’s earlier victory in a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of the Eagles’ Naresh Bharathy on court four.
Not only was the Blue Devils’ depth on display in their 6-1 victory over the Eagles, but also their conditioning, with Planelles Ripoll and Rodenas both concluding two singles matches in just under five hours.
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After a fiery and efficient performance from Rodenas in his 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory earlier in the afternoon, he struggled against Hugo Hidalgo Vega of N.C. Central on court one, falling in a third-set super tiebreak, 4-6, 6-3, 0-1 (8-10). However, the uncharacteristic loss proved irrelevant as Duke coasted to victories on all other courts.
Next weekend, Smith’s squad will host Old Dominion Saturday and then will face Cornell or Vanderbilt Sunday in the ITA Kickoff with the goal of reaching a 4-0 start in back-to-back years.