No. 4 Duke Tops No. 27 Georgia Tech 6-1 on Saturday

Saturday, March 25

Durham, N.C.

1 p.m.

Duke University

Georgia Tech

Stokke and Walter Prepare for ITA National Indoor Championships

No. 4 Duke Tops No. 27 Georgia Tech 6-1 on Saturday

3/25/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

Durham, N.C. - No. 4 Duke improved to 2-0 in ACC play and 10-3 overall with a 6-1 victory over No. 27 Georgia Tech on Saturday at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center. The Yellow Jackets fell to 6-6 for the year with their sixth straight loss and are now 0-4 in conference play.

The Blue Devils dominated the singles competition with straight set wins in each of the first five matches. No. 37 Jonathan Stokke won his team-high 21st match of the year with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Jordan Delass at the No. 2 position. Ludovic Walter, ranked fifth in the nation, became the second Blue Devil to reach the 20-win mark this season with a 6-2, 6-3 victory against Marko Rajevac in the No. 1 slot. Walter improved to 10-2 in dual matches and 20-7 overall.

No. 62 Peter Rodrigues continued his solid play at No. 3 with a 6-4, 6-2 win over David North. Rodrigues has won 11 of his 12 dual matches this year and is 17-7 overall. Kiril Dimitrov became the fourth Duke player to record double digit wins with a 6-3, 6-1 win against George Gvelesiani in the No. 5 match. Dimitrov is 4-2 when playing at No. 5 and 8-3 in dual matches this season. He is now 10-4 in his career at Duke. Joey Atas moved to an even 9-9 on the year with a 7-6 (4), 6-1 win over Zachary Rath in the No. 4 slot. Atas is 5-2 when playing at No. 4 and 6-3 overall in dual matches. In the final match of the day, Scott Blackmon edged Alex Stone in the No. 6 match 6-3, 6-7 (5), 1-0 (10-7). The match was the first of the dual season for Stone and he is now 5-4 on the year.

The doubles point came down to the wire with the No. 1 and No. 3 matches each going to a tiebreaker, but the Blue Devils were able to win the first two before falling in the third. Duke's No. 29 team of Atas and Stokke were able to clinch the point with a 9-8 (4) victory over North and Rajevac in the top spot. At No. 3, Georgia Tech's Delass and Gvelesiani came away with a 9-8 (7) win against Ned Samuelson and Walter. The first match to finish was the No. 2 match as Stephen Amritraj and Rodrigues cruised to an 8-2 victory against Blackmon and Rath.

The win for the Blue Devils is their ninth over a ranked team this season and sixth over a team ranked in the top-30. They will be back in action again tomorrow when they host No. 10 Clemson (15-3, 2-1 ACC) at 1 p.m. It will be the sixth time this season the Blue Devils will have faced a team ranked among the top-10 teams in the country.

March 25, 2006 - Durham, N.C. (1:00 p.m.)
Sheffield (Indoor) Tennis Center

No. 4 Duke
6

vs.

No. 27 Georgia Tech
1

Singles
1.		1	2	3
Duke	#5 Ludovic Walter	6	6	-
GT	Marko Rajevac	2	3	-
2.		1	2	3
Duke	#37 Jonathan Stokke	6	6	-
GT	Jordan Delass	2	4	-
3.		1	2	3
Duke	#62 Peter Rodrigues	6	6*	-
GT	David North	4	2	-
4.		1	2	3
Duke	Joey Atas	7	6	-
GT	Zachary Rath	6	1	-
5.		1	2	3
Duke	Kiril Dimitrov	6	6	-
GT	George Gvelesiani	3	1	-
6.		1	2	3
Duke	Alex Stone	3	7	0
GT	Scott Blackmon	6	6	1

Doubles
1.		1
Duke	#29 Atas & Stokke	9
GT	North & Rajevac	8
2.		1
Duke	Amritraj & Rodrigues	8
GT	Blackmon & Rath	2
3.		1
Duke	Samuelson & Walter	8
GT	Delass & Gvelesiani	9