Blue Devils Travel to SMU and Boston College

Match 13
No. 43 Duke at No. 47 SMU – Friday at 6 p.m.
Watch | Live Results

Match 18
No. 43 Duke at Boston College – Sunday at 10 a.m.
Live Results

DURHAM, N.C. - The No. 43 Duke men's tennis team (6-6, 1-1 ACC) makes its first ACC road trip this weekend, traveling to No. 47 SMU and Boston College. The Blue Devils face the Mustangs (9-6, 1-1 ACC) Friday at 6 p.m. and the Eagles (4-4, 0-2 ACC) Sunday at 10 a.m.

UPDATED ITA RANKINGS
With the new national rankings Tuesday, Duke enters the weekend at No. 43 as a team. Three Blue Devils and one Duke duo are ranked as well with No. 62 Cooper Williams, No. 103 Pedro Rodenas and No. 123 Gerard Planelles Ripoll. In doubles, Williams and Rodenas jumped up to No. 11.

LAST TIME OUT
Duke hosted No. 12 Stanford and captured the doubles point, but the Cardinal took four singles matches for the comeback 4-2 victory. The Blue Devils snagged the doubles point as Williams and Rodenas earned a break and hold with the set even at 4-4 to defeat the No. 8 team of Alex Chang and Alex Razeghi, 6-4. Duke's court three tandem of Teddy Truwit and Alexander Visser had earned a 6-3 triumph against the No. 36 team of Mark Krupkin and Hudson Rivera to open the doubles decisions. After Stanford evened the score at 1-1, Saahith Jayaraman put Duke back in front at 2-1 thanks to a 6-4, 6-2 victory against Krupkin on court six. In a back-and-forth battle on court one, No. 48 Rivera defeated No. 95 Rodenas, 6-3, 6-4, to even the match at 2-2. Seconds later, Jagger Leach pushed the Cardinal ahead 3-2 with a 6-1, 7-6 (3) victory versus Planelles Ripoll on court three. Stanford clinched on court four, where Razeghi topped Visser, 7-5, 6-2.

ONLY WINS ON TWO
The Blue Devils enter the weekend with a 7-0 mark in singles on court two. Rodenas has gone 5-0 there while Williams sports a 2-0 record. Duke does not have another singles court with more than five wins.

LONG NETS FIRST ACC WIN
Playing in his first ACC match last Friday against California, freshman Dylan Long wasted no time registering a victory. Long downed Lenn Luemkemann 6-1, 6-3 on court five. Long led 3-0 and never looked back in the first set. He grabbed a 3-1 lead in the second set before Luemkemann closed the gap to 3-2 and 4-3. Long held and broke for the triumph.

JAYARAMAN BEGINS OUTDOORS AT 2-0
Playing his best tennis recently, Jayaraman registered his first ACC victory of the season against Stanford. Jayaraman is 2-0 in outdoor matches after going 1-2 indoors. As a true freshman last season, Jayaraman tallied three league victories.

RANKED WINS
Planelles Ripoll leads Duke with two dual match wins against nationally ranked opponents.

Last Friday against California, he gave Duke a 3-1 lead after a 6-4, 6-4 court three triumph against No. 125 Tiago Silva. Planelles Ripoll led 3-0 and 4-1 in the opening set before Silva stormed back with the next three to even the set at 4-4. Planelles Ripoll answered with a hold and break to end it. In the second set, Planelles Ripoll and Silva were even throughout until Planelles Ripoll ended the match with a hold and break on a deuce point.

Earlier this spring, Planelles Ripoll topped No. 26 Jack Loutit of Kentucky, 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (3). Planelles Ripoll started fast with a 3-0 lead in the opening set. He led 4-1 before closing out the set. In the second, Loutit returned the favor with 3-1 and 5-1 advantages from which Planelles Ripoll could not come back. The third set had Loutit continue the momentum and mount a 4-1 lead. This time, Planelles Ripoll had the answer and cut the deficit to just 5-4 before evening the set at 5-5. In the tiebreaker, Loutit took a 2-0 advantage, but Planelles Ripoll stormed past with seven of the final eight points for the match.

HISTORY WITH SMU
Duke will face SMU for just the fifth time in program history and leads the series 4-0. Last March, in their first meeting as ACC foes, Duke earned a 4-0 sweep. Prior to last year's match, the two had not faced each other since a 4-2 Blue Devils win on May 20, 2000, in the Round of 16 of the NCAA Tournament when head coach Ramsey Smith was a junior on the Duke squad.

SCOUTING THE MUSTANGS
SMU is ranked No. 47 by the ITA and features the No. 2 ranked singles player nationally in Trevor Svajda. He enters Friday with a 10-1 singles record in dual matches, competing exclusively at the top position. No. 107 Alex Finkelstein owns a combined 5-5 dual match record with a 2-0 mark on court one and 3-5 ledger on court two.

In doubles, Svajda and Finkelstein stand No. 47 and hold a 4-3 record on court one. The Vikas Deo and Georgi Georgiev tandem is a combined 5-1 with a 2-1 record on court two and 3-0 mark in the third position.

HISTORY WITH BOSTON COLLEGE
Duke is 21-0 all-time against Boston College. Last March, the Blue Devils picked up a 6-1 victory.

SCOUTING THE EAGLES
In Boston College's two ACC matches, Mai Gao has played on the top singles court with Matvey Greschner filling the second slot. Greschner and Liam O'Leary have been the top doubles team in league competition.

UP NEXT
Duke remains on the road for ACC matches at Virginia on Friday, March 13 and Virginia Tech on Sunday, March 15.

To stay up to date with Blue Devils men's tennis, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook by searching "DukeMTEN".

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Blue Devils Travel to SMU and Boston College

Players Mentioned

Saahith Jayaraman

Dylan Long

Gerard Planelles Ripoll

Pedro Rodenas

Teddy Truwit

Alexander Visser

Cooper Williams

Duke information

Blue Devils Travel to SMU and Boston College

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Players Mentioned

Saahith Jayaraman

Dylan Long

Gerard Planelles Ripoll

Pedro Rodenas

Teddy Truwit

Alexander Visser

Cooper Williams

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Duke information