No. 10 Duke Downs No. 20 Texas 5-2 on Friday

Friday, February 10

Durham, N.C.

6 p.m.

Duke University

Texas

Stokke and Walter Prepare for ITA National Indoor Championships

No. 10 Duke Downs No. 20 Texas 5-2 on Friday

2/10/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

Durham, N.C. - No. 10 Duke improved to 3-1 on the season and handed No. 20 Texas their first loss of the year (2-1) with a 5-2 victory on Friday at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.

The Blue Devils rallied to win five of the six singles matches after losing the doubles point. Peter Rodrigues continued his stellar play, improving to 4-0 in dual matches with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over No. 34 Roger Gubser in the No. 3 singles match. With the win Rodrigues picked up his 10th victory of the season, improving to 10-6 overall in singles.

Joey Atas and Kiril Dimitrov also won in straight sets to put Duke ahead 3-1. Atas won his second straight match since moving into the No. 4 spot. He defeated Milan Mihailovic 6-0, 6-2. Dimitrov evened his dual match record to 2-2 with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Michael Venus at the No. 6 spot.

Jonathan Stokke clinced the match with a victory at the No. 2 singles position. After losing the first set, 4-6 to Callum Beale, he rallied to win the next two easily 6-1, 6-2. Stokke won his team-high 17th match of the season and is now 17-9 overall. No. 9 Ludovic Walter also came back for a win after falling in the opening set. No. 44 Travis Helgeson took the first set 6-2 but Walter fought his way back to win in a tiebreaker in the second set, 7-6. In the third set, Walter lost the serve and fell behind 5-4, but came back to score the next three points and take the match with a 7-5 victory. With the win he improved to 13-6 overall and came away with his eighth win over a ranked opponent. The win also moves him into a tie for fifth on Duke's all-time career singles wins list with 109 victories. He ties Marc Flur, the Blue Devil's lone men's tennis player in the Duke Hall of Fame. Walter now is one win shy of Marko Cerenko for fourth.

Texas picked up a victory at the No. 5 singles position. Miguel Reyes Varela defeated Christopher Brown in straight sets 7-6, 6-3. The Longhorns started the match with a pair of victories in doubles at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots. The No. 34 team of Venus and Helgeson defeated Stephen Amritraj and Walter, 8-4, while Hubert Chodkiewicz and Varela handed Rodrigues and Ned Samuelson an 8-3 loss.

Duke came away with a victory at the No. 1 doubles position. Atas and Stokke, ranked No. 9 in the country, won for the first time in the dual match season. They defeated Beale and Gubser 8-4 to improve to 12-3 on the year as a duo.

The Blue Devils will return to the courts for their fifth straight home match on Sunday as they square off against No. 24 Texas A&M at 12 p.m. It will be their final dual match before the USTA-ITA National Team Indoor Championships which will be held Feb. 17-20 in Seattle, Wash. Duke is the eighth seed and will take on No. 9 Baylor in the first round at 2 p.m. EST on Friday.

February 10, 2006 - Durham, N.C. (6:00 p.m.)
Sheffield (Indoor) Tennis Center

No. 10 Duke
5

vs.

No. 20 Texas
2

Singles
1.		1	2	3
Duke	#9 Ludovic Walter	2	7	7
UT	#44 Travis Helgeson	6	6	5
2.		1	2	3
Duke	#20 Jonathan Stokke	4	6	6*
UT	Callum Beale	6	1	2
3.		1	2	3
Duke	Peter Rodrigues	6	6	-
UT	#34 Roger Gubser	2	2	-
4.		1	2	3
Duke	Joey Atas	6	6	-
UT	Milan Mihailovic	0	2	-
5.		1	2	3
Duke	Christopher Brown	6	3	-
UT	Miguel Reyes Varela	7	6	-
6.		1	2	3
Duke	Kiril Dimitrov	6	6	-
UT	Michael Venus	4	4	-

Doubles
1.		1
Duke	#9 J. Atas & J. Stokke	8
UT	C. Beale & R. Gubser	4
2.		1
Duke	S. Amritraj & L. Walter	4
UT	#34 T. Helgeson & M. Venus	8
3.		1
Duke	P. Rodrigues & N. Samuelson	3
UT	H. Chodkiewicz & M. Varela	8