Upcoming Event: Men's Tennis versus ITA All-American Championship on September 20, 2025
Men's Tennis
vs ITA All-American Championship
Atas & Stokke Upset No. 1 Doubles Team in NCAA First Round, Walter Advances in Singles
5/25/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Palo Alto, Calif. - Joey Atas and Jonathan Stokke opened doubles play with a three-set upset over top-ranked Scott Green and Ross Wilson of Ohio State on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Individual Doubles Championships at the Taube Tennis Center in Palo Alto, Calif. Ludovic Walter also won in three sets to advance to the round of 16 in singles.
Atas and Stokke came out and took a 4-2 lead in the first set. Green and Wilson rallied to even the score at 4-4 before the Duke duo regained the advantage and edged out the Ohio State pair for a 7-5 win in the first set. Green and Wilson fought back to win the second set 6-3 but Atas and Stokke would fight back to take the third set, 6-3, to complete the upset. Atas, a transfer from Ohio State, helped hand his former teammates just their fifth loss of the season in 37 matches. Atas and Stokke improve to 26-12 overall for the year and are 12-3 in tournament play.
“We knew it was going to be a difficult match and we were nervous before the match,” said Atas, a junior from Baltimore, Md. “We knew they were the No. 1 team and we were going to have to play well. We were playing with a lot of energy. Jonathan was like “this is the No. 1 team and we have to beat them” and for me it was a match against my old teammates and really good friends so it was tough. I played really well though.”
Atas and Stokke advance to the round of 16 where they will square off against Florida State's Ytai Abougzir and Chris Westerhof. The two teams from Duke and Florida State met twice this season with Abougzir and Westerhof winning 8-3 and 8-5 in the two meetings. The Seminoles' duo advanced with a close 7-6 (2), 7-5 win over Baylor's Michal Kokta and Lars Poerschke.
“We played really well today and it was a good match for Joey (Atas) since he transferred from Ohio State,” said Stokke. “We are fired up and I think if we win tomorrow's match then we get All-America so there is a lot to play for.”
In singles, Walter played his second match of the singles championships and claimed a three-set victory over Florida's Greg Ouellette to advance to the round of 16. Walter edged Ouellette in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (4), to take the first set. Ouellette stormed back to win the second set, 6-2. Walter trailed 3-4 in the final set with Ouellette serving but he was able to break serve and come back to take a 7-5 win. With the win Walter improves to 32-11 on the season and is 128-41 in his career. He will move on to face Virginia's Somdev Devvarman in the next round. Devvarman advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Radford's Martin Sayer.
Friday's competition will begin at 11 a.m. with the round of 16 for both singles and doubles to take place. The quarterfinals will be on Saturday, the semifinals on Sunday and the championship matches will be held on Monday. The singles final will be at 12 p.m. and the doubles final will begin at 2 p.m.
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