Men’s Tennis: UVA beats up on Blue Devils to stay perfect in ACC play

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The No. 3 Virginia men’s tennis team won 6-1 against No. 15 Duke on Sunday at the Ambler Tennis Stadium in Durham.

Virginia (12-4, 4-0 ACC) won the doubles point and took the first four singles matches to jump out to a 5-0 lead. Freshman Dylan Dietrich won the clinching point for the Cavaliers.

Duke (11-7, 3-2) opened the match with a 6-4 win on the top doubles court. Virginia evened the point with a 7-5 win by Dietrich and senior Alex Kiefer on three. Seniors Chris Rodesch and Jeffrey von der Schulenburg won a tiebreaker 7-3 to take their match on two and secure the point for the Cavaliers.

In singles, Rodesch and Schulenburg picked up straight-set victories on courts two and four to put UVA ahead 3-0.

It was another 50 minutes before Dietrich won a tiebreaker 7-5 to take his second set and win his match against Andrez Zhang on three to clinch the victory.

Minutes after Dietrich clinched, sophomore Måns Dahlberg added a fifth point with a three-set win on court six. Dahlberg rebounded from a 6-1 loss in his opening set against Faris Khan with 6-3, 6-2 victories in sets two and three.

Duke won a three-set match on the top court to log a point.

Kiefer came back from down a break in his final set against Alexander Visser on court five to win 7-6 (5), 2-6, 6-4 to close out the action.

MATCH NOTES

• This was the second meeting of the year between the teams. UVA topped Duke 4-1 in the Round of the 16 of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships
• Virginia has won the last eight meetings with the Blue Devils
• Three of Virginia’s four ACC victories have been against teams ranked in the top 25
• Virginia has won 45 consecutive conference matches. Their last ACC loss was against Wake Forest on March 17, 2019
• Virginia has not lost an outdoor match since falling against USC in the Round of 16 of the 2021 NCAA Championship (5/17/21)

UP NEXT

The Cavaliers return home next weekend to host Louisville on Friday at 3 p.m. and Notre Dame on Sunday at 1 p.m. 

VIRGINIA 6, DUKE 1

Singles
1. #47 Garrett Johns (DU) def. #38 Iñaki Montes (UVA) 6-3, 0-6, 6-2
2. #9 Chris Rodesch (UVA) def. #66 Pedro Rodenas (DU) 6-3, 6-2
3. #61 Dylan Dietrich (UVA) def. Andrew Zhang (DU) 7-5, 7-6 (5)
4. #72 Jeffrey von der Schulenburg (UVA) def. Connor Krug (DU) 6-4, 6-3
5. Alexander Kiefer (UVA) def. Alexander Visser (DU) 7-6 (5), 2-6, 6-4
6. Måns Dahlberg (UVA) def. Faris Khan (DU) 1-6, 6-3, 6-2

Doubles
1. Garrett Johns/Pedro Rodenas (DU) def. #19 Iñaki Montes/James Hopper (UVA) 6-4
2. #24 Chris Rodesch/Jeffrey von der Schulenburg (UVA) def. #21 Michael Heller/Andrew Zhang (DU) 7-6 (3)
3. Dylan Dietrich/Alexander Kiefer (UVA) def. Faris Khan/Teddy Truwit (DU) 7-5
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (2,4,3,6,1,5)