Ludo Has Postseason Run, Pro Career On His Mind

DURHAM, N.C. - It was a busy week for senior tennis star Ludovic Walter.

On Monday, he submitted the most significant accomplishment of his academic career, a voluntary honors thesis on pension reforms in Europe. On Wednesday, he turned in a performance that established him among the great athletes in Duke history.

With his 6-2, 7-5 victory over Wake Forest's Todd Paul, Walter tied former standout Ramsey Smith, now an assistant coach, for the all-time singles record at Duke.

"We keep joking about that every day at practice," Walter says. "He (Smith) said, ?I'm going to sit you out for two matches.'"

Walter remained in the lineup, of course, and broke Smith's record of 119 wins with an easy victory at Boston College a few days later. He finished the regular season with a singles mark of 122-41.

For the moment, however, Walter is focused on larger goals. "We have a chance to do really well this year at NCAAs," he says. "Coach (Jay Lapidus) really wants us to focus on tennis for the next two months, because he feels like we have a chance to win the title."

Ranked sixth in the nation, Duke begins postseason play at the ACC Tournament this week with a record of 17-6, after tying Virginia and Miami at the top of the league standings. Duke won the tiebreaker and was seeded first.

The Blue Devils already have proven themselves against some of the top competition in the country, with 13 wins over ranked teams, three in the top 10. "We've won against good teams, like Florida, Baylor, Texas, and have had good results. And we've come close against good teams, like (No. 2) Pepperdine," Walter says. Having played in Duke's number one slot for the past two years, Walter has individually faced the best of the best. Currently ranked No. 4 nationally, he's played against over 20 top-100 ranked opponents so far this year alone.

And, unlike many college athletes, he's managed to stay healthy throughout. "I've been pretty lucky," he says. "I had to sit out one match against Maryland my sophomore year because I'd played too many matches already, but I haven't missed a dual match in four years. I think I'm the only one who hasn't missed one."

Walter knows that to capture a national title, each match ahead may be a battle. "There are a lot of teams out there who can win it," Walter notes. "It's going to come down...to third sets. It's happened in a lot of matches against top teams this year.

"I have confidence on every guy on the team. Everyone's going to have a good effort on the court, fight until the end, and never give up. It's just a matter of building confidence, because some teams have won who were definitely not the best teams. They just came out after winning their conference, they win a couple of good matches, and when you play with confidence, you play a lot better. It's the key. If everybody can be healthy around NCAAs, in good shape, we're golden."

A native of France, Walter is not the only international player making a difference for the Blue Devils. Duke's top six includes freshman Kiril Dimitrov (Sofia, Bulgaria) and junior Peter Rodrigues (Estoril, Portugal). "Over the past 10 to 12 years," says Lapidus, "about two people on our team have been international players at any given point."

Though he typically recruits nationally-ranked American players first, Lapidus makes a special effort when he sees an outstanding foreign candidate. "From our standpoint at Duke, international recruiting is more difficult than other places, because academically the guidelines are much more stringent, in terms of getting students in...But occasionally a situation arises where there is a really strong kid with a good academic background, as well."

Walter was one of those special cases. "Ludo's been a great kid, both on the court and off. He does it all: academically, he is really strong, and he has a great character. You just can't say enough about certain kids. He is definitely one of the best kids to come out of our program. He's one of the ones who only come around once in a while."

Looking ahead, however, Walter's path to a pro career could get complicated. He will have to decide whether to stay in the U.S. or return to his home country of France. "I can practice at home," he says. "I would have a good coach, a good conditioning coach, but in my area there are not enough players. They are all in different cities, and it's hard to coordinate practice. In France I'm going to have to go to Paris or some big city. In the U.S., I could always come back to Duke and practice with the guys here. The structures are nice, there are good coaches, they're always available."

Additionally, he'll need to find sponsors to meet the financial demands of the tour. Traveling each week gets expensive, especially when you're not making money on the road.

Fortunately, he's just received a nice boost in that direction.

Along with Brendan Dewan (football), Nicole Dudek (field hockey) and Katie Ness (swimming), Walter recently joined the ranks of 36 scholar-athletes in the ACC to receive postgraduate awards for next year. While many recipients use the award to pursue graduate school, Walter plans to use the Weaver-James-Corrigan award to support his attempt to join the professional tour.

Still, making the jump to professional tennis will take significant work. To make it into the main draw of tournaments, Walter will have to start at the bottom and work his way up. "I have no ATP points so far," he shrugs. "I'm going to have to play (in qualifiers) every week to get some points. I need to qualify and win a couple of matches in the main draw to get points. And once I get points I'm able to make the main draw right away to make the next tournament."

As he looks ahead to the future, Walter is also aware of what's coming to an end. While graduation music plays inside Wallace Wade Stadium just a few hundred yards away, Walter could be on the court, playing what would be his last match as a Blue Devil if Duke hosts the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. From there, it's a brief respite at home in Vannes before beginning the next steps.

"I enjoy going home, but then, it will be the last time I leave this place, so I'm sure I'll be kind of sad. Everybody's going to do his own thing." For this accomplished scholar-athlete, it will be a bittersweet ending to an incredibly sweet career.

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There were three-way ties at the top of the ACC standings in men's and women's tennis this year. In men's play Duke, Virginia and Miami all had 9-2 records, while in women's play Duke, Miami and Georgia Tech were 9-2. The Blue Devils got the top seed in men's tennis and the No. 2 spot in the women's tiebreaker. The ACC tourney for both runs Apr. 20-23 in Cary. Duke last won the men's and women's tourneys in 2003.