TCU
#17 Duke
TCU Upsets No. 17 Duke, 4-0
3/13/2018 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
FORT WORTH, Texas - A complete team performance across doubles and singles propelled the No. 32 TCU men's tennis team to a 4-0 upset victory over No. 17 Duke on Tuesday night at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Fla.
The Horned Frogs (8-3) began the match with the No. 3 doubles pair of Reese Stalder and Bertus Kruger dominating the Blue Devils (10-7) with a 6-1 victory for a team-best seventh win this season. The final two courts would come down to tiebreakers with the No. 41 ranked duo of Guillermo Nuñez and Alex Rybakov taking it 7-4 to clinch the doubles point on court one.
TCU was able to take the momentum into singles as the team grabbed the first sets on five of the six courts. No. 72 Trevor Johnson could not be stopped as the senior improved to 8-1 on the season with a 6-0, 6-1 win on court two. Nuñez battled a first-set tiebreaker and ultimately came out on top and then secured a 6-4 win in the second set to put the Frogs up 3-0 in the match. In his first singles match in over a month, freshman Kruger finished things off with a 6-4, 6-3 win at the No. 6 position.
Quotes from the Match
Head Coach David Roditi
"First of all, it was fun to play here at the home of American tennis. It's a beautiful place and a different experience for our guys. It obviously feels great to play at the level we did and beat a very good Duke team. We have been talking about having a full team performance and today we got it. There are many positives from today and the ones that stand out are Trevor Johnson's beautiful performance, a complete match at No. 3 doubles, Guillermo Nuñez bearing down and winning a huge first set breaker and a gutsy performance from Bertus Kruger who has been hurt for a while.
"Now we drive to Gainesville tonight to play another top team in Florida tomorrow night. This is definitely testing our resilience and we will see what we have as a team. I have no doubt our boys will be ready to battle."
Match Results
Duke vs TCU
Mar 13, 2018 at Lake Nona, Fla.
(USTA National Campus)
#32 TCU 4, #17 Duke 0
Singles competition
1. #32 Alex Rybakov (TCU) vs. #25 Nicolas Alvarez (DU) 4-6, 6-3, 3-1, unfinished
2. #72 Trevor Johnson (TCU) def. Catalin Mateas (DU) 6-0, 6-1
3. #30 Alastair Gray (TCU) vs. Spencer Furman (DU) 6-4, 4-6, 1-2, unfinished
4. Guillermo Nuñez (TCU) def. Nick Stachowiak (DU) 7-6 (9-7), 6-4
5. Reese Stalder (TCU) vs. Sean Sculley (DU) 6-4, 5-5, unfinished
6. Bertus Kruger (TCU) def. Ryan Dickerson (DU) 6-4, 6-3
Doubles competition
1. #41 Guillermo Nuñez/Alex Rybakov (TCU) def. Nick Stachowiak/Spencer Furman (DU) 7-6 (7-4)
2. Alastair Gray/Trevor Johnson (TCU) vs. Nicolas Alvarez/Catalin Mateas (DU) 6-6, unfinished
3. Reese Stalder/Bertus Kruger (TCU) def. Jason Lapidus/Sean Sculley (DU) 6-1
Match Notes:
Duke 10-7; National ranking #17
TCU 8-3; National ranking #32
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1); Singles (2,4,6)
Up Next
TCU will continue their spring break road trip by heading to Gainesville, Fla., to take on Florida on Wednesday, March 14 at 5 p.m., CT.
Players Mentioned
