Duke Men’s Tennis Upsets No. 5 Virginia in Opening ACC Match

Friday, February 28

Durham, N.C.

3:00 PM

Duke University

Virginia

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Duke Men’s Tennis Upsets No. 5 Virginia in Opening ACC Match

2/28/2025 8:06:00 PM | Men's Tennis

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DURHAM, N.C. – The No. 15 Duke men's tennis team played its first outdoor match of the season, started ACC competition and downed its highest-ranked opponent of the year in topping No. 5 Virginia, 5-2.

The Blue Devils bounced back from three setbacks at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship to start ACC play with their first victory versus the Cavaliers since March 30, 2018.

On Friday, Duke captured the doubles point and junior Pedro Rodenas, junior Sam Landau, senior Connor Krug and graduate senior Remy Dugardin claimed singled victories with Rodenas capturing the clinching point.

How It Happened

With all three doubles matches finishing within seconds of each other, Duke came away with triumphs and courts two and three.
On court two, Duke claimed a 6-3 victory as sophomore Cooper Williams and graduate Andreja Petrovic defeated No. 50 Dylan Dietrich and Mans Dahlberg. The Duke pair hopped out to a 3-0 lead and the Cavalier duo never got closer than two games the rest of the way. Duke led 5-2 before Virginia got a game, but the Blue Devils served out for the win.
The Cavaliers quickly evened the action on court one, where No. 38 James Hopper and Keegan Rice earned a 6-3 victory against the No. 30 team of graduate Theo Winegar and Rodenas. With the set tied 2-2, Virginia went on a three-game stretch to lead 5-2. Duke got a game back, but the Cavaliers held on for the set.
Court three had the decider as Landau and Dugardin topped Rafael Jodar and Jangjun Kim, 6-2. The Blue Devil breezed through the first five games to go ahead 5-0 before Virginia broke and held. Duke served out for the critical doubles point and a 1-0 lead.
In singles, the Cavaliers got on the scoreboard with a victory on court one. No. 17 Rafael Jodar posted a straight-set win over No. 72 Williams (6-2, 6-2) to even the overall score at 1-1.
Duke regained the lead at 2-1 with a win by Dugardin on court six. In the first set of his match, he dropped just one game and secured a 6-1 victory. In the second set, he broke away from a 2-2 tie to clinch the match with a 6-3 win.
Krug extended Duke's lead to 3-1 by clinching his match on court five. In the first set, he rallied back from a 2-0 deficit to win 6-3. In the second set, he pulled away from Virginia's Roy Horovitz after a 2-2 tie and secured another 6-3 victory to claim his match.
Rodenas sealed the overall victory for Duke, making it 4-1, with a straight-set win over Hopper. The first set was a competitive back-and-forth battle, but No. 30 Rodenas pulled away at 4-3 and closed it out 6-4. In the second set, he maintained his momentum and posted another 6-4 win, cementing the Blue Devils' triumph.
No. 77 Landau pushed Duke's lead to 5-1 with a three-set victory in a tiebreak on court four. He dropped the first set 3-6 to Dahlberg but bounced back with a 6-3 win in the second. In the decisive tiebreak, Landau secured the match with a 10-6 victory.
In the final singles match, Virginia earned its last point of the day with a win on court three over Petrovic. In the first set, Petrovic had the score tied at 2-2 before Rice pulled ahead to win 6-4. Petrovic responded in the second set, overcoming a 1-2 deficit to even the match with a 6-2 win. In the deciding tiebreak, Rice edged out a 10-8 victory.

Quotes

"I'm proud of the guys. Obviously, we had a rough go of it at ITA Team Indoors. We did some good things and lost some close matches. It's one of those situations where we could have hung our heads, but we had a great week and a half of training and felt really prepared for this match. It feels great to start 1-0 and to beat Virginia. They have been a really tough team to beat in the conference for a long time. I'm just really happy and proud of our guys."
"We didn't play our very best tennis today, but we competed really well. We have such good depth and so many good players that didn't even compete today, but I'm just proud of the guys for stepping up. Sam stepped up and came back to win at the end in a tiebreak after losing the first, which was great. Andreja lost that first set but came back and won the second set, and even though he lost in the super breaker, he gave us a lot of momentum and helped the guys at the end. I'm really happy for Connor to get that win, and Remy has been doing his thing. He seems to be enjoying the dual-match environment. And it was fitting for Pedro to finish it off." – Duke head coach Ramsey Smith

Up Next

Duke continues ACC play this weekend as it hosts Virginia Tech on Sunday for a match at noon in the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.

Results
Doubles (2,1,3)
1. #38 James Hopper/Keegan Rice (VA) def. #30 Theo Winegar/Pedro Rodenas(DU) 6-3
2. Cooper Williams/Andreja Petrovic (DU) def. #50 Dylan Dietrich/Mans Dahlberg (VA) 6-3
3. Sam Landau/Remy Dugardin (DU) def. Rafael Jodar/Jangjun Kim (VA) 6-2

Singles (1,6,5,2,4,3)
1. #17 Rafael Jodar (VA) def. #72 Cooper Williams (DU) 6-2, 6-2
2. #30 Pedro Rodenas (DU) def. James Hopper (VA) 6-4, 6-4
3. Keegan Rice (VA) def. Andreja Petrovic (DU) 6-4, 2-6, 1-0 (10-8)
4. #77 Sam Landau (DU) def. Mans Dahlberg (VA) 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-6)
5. Connor Krug (DU) def. Roy Horovitz (VA) 6-3, 6-3
6. Remy Dugardin (DU) def. Stiles Brockett (VA) 6-1, 6-3

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