No. 7 Duke Battles Back to Defeat Kentucky, 4-2

Friday, January 30

Durham, N.C.

5:00 p.m.

Duke University

Kentucky

Photo by: Duke Athletics

No. 7 Duke Battles Back to Defeat Kentucky, 4-2

1/30/2026 11:08:00 PM | Women's Tennis

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DURHAM, N.C. — Duke women's tennis team rallied from an early deficit to defeat Kentucky, 4-2, Friday evening inside Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center. The Wildcats claimed the opening doubles point, but Duke responded with four key singles victories, including a clinching three-set win from lone senior Katie Codd.

The Blue Devils won their 14th-straight home match remain to undefeated 4-0, while Kentucky dropped to 2-1.

How It Happened

On court three Irina Balus and Ava Krug dropped the opening two games before cutting their deficit in half, 1-2. Kentucky's Marina Fuduric and Ellie Myers carried four games in a row, besting the Blue Devils 6-1.
Kentucky clinched the doubles point on court one as Marina Fuduric and Julia Zhu defeated Liv Hovde and Claire An, 6-0.
When the doubles point was clinched, Shavit Kimchi and Eleana Yu were leading Reese Sager and Ascuncion Jadue, 4-1, on court two.
To open singles, Duke won the first set on three out of six courts.
On court four, Kimchi fell behind 0-3 in the opening set before rallying to even the score at 4-4 and 5-5. After earning a crucial break against Reese Sager to take a 6-5 lead, Kimchi held serve to claim the first set, 7-5. Kimchi, a native of Sdey Hemed, Israel, then cruised through the second set only dropping a singular game with a 6-1 win to level the match, 1-1, for the Blue Devils.
Duke's 22nd-ranked Balus never trailed on court one as she battled through key ties to give The Blue Devils' their first lead of the match. After being tied, 4-4, in the first set, Balus carried it 6-4, before winning a key deuce point at 2-2 to go on and win the set, 6-3, defeating Zoe Hammond 6-4, 6-3.
Kentucky evened the score once again as Elena Molla defeated sophomore Ava Krug, 3-6, 4-6, on court No. 5.
With the match tied, courts two, three and six all were forced to third sets.
Hovde, who is ranked No. 98 nationally in singles, showed strength early as she rebounded from a 2-4 deficit winning four games in a row to win the first set, 6-4. Zhu then responded by winning her own four straight games and earned a key break late, 6-5, to steal the second set, 7-5. Hovde, a Daniel Island, South Carolina native, bounced back racing to a 5-0 lead before closing the match with a 6-2 win, putting Duke ahead, 3-2.
The deciding point came on court six from veteran senior Katie Codd as she defeated Ellie Myers in three sets. After dropping the first set 4-6, Codd didn't drop a single game in the second, 6-0. In the deciding set, Codd and Myers traded games back and forth before Codd broke serve at 4-4 pulling away to clinch the match for Duke, 6-4.
On court three, 87th-ranked Yu controlled the opener against Kentucky Asuncion Jadue, 6-1. In the second set, Yu came back from a 5-6 deficit to force the set to a tiebreaker, which Jadue dominated, 7-1, to force a third set. The third set was tightly contested with ties at 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, and 4-4 before the match was clinched.

Notes

Duke snapped a streak of 15 consecutive home matches in which it had won the doubles point. The Blue Devils last dropped the doubles point at home against Pepperdine on Jan. 17, 2025.
Katie Codd clinched the match for Duke for the sixth time in her Blue Devil career.
Head coach Jamie Ashworth moved to 6-1 all-time against Kentucky.
The win marked Duke's 14th-straight win at home.
Irina Balus remained undefeated in the No. 1 slot this season, 3-0.
Ava Krug dropped her first collegiate dual match as she fell to 8-1 over her short career.

Quotes

"It was one of the worst exhibitions of doubles we've had in a long time.We have to address that and have to make sure that we hold ourselves to a higher state. I was proud of how we came back in singles against a good SEC team. They [Kentucky] don't fear anybody. They play the best of the best every week. I thought we gave them some confidence, a false sense of confidence, and they started to roll and build on it." – Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth
"Katie did a great job of competing. That's the first big match she's played this year. We're trying to move people around in our lineup and I felt like she deserves an opportunity." – Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth
"I don't think we were close to our best today, but we were able to dig deep when we needed to and win a match like that at the end. Hopefully we can learn from that." -- Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth

Next Match

Duke will face James Madison at home on Sunday, Feb. 1 at 3 p.m.

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

#GoDuke

#7 Duke 4, Kentucky 2
January 30, 2026
Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center * Durham, N.C.

Doubles