DURHAM, N.C. – The Georgia Tech men’s tennis team stormed back to win a crucial 4-3 road battle at Duke on Friday evening. Tech notched its 10th team victory of the campaign.
The No. 10 doubles team in the nation from Duke quickly won on Court 1 before Gianluca Carlini and Elias Shokry powered away to a Court 3 victory after winning three consecutive games at 3-3, leaving the doubles point in the hands on Jonathan Irwanto and Richard Biagiotti on Court 2.
The Jackets won a crucial break at 2-2 to capitalize and grow the lead to 4-2, riding out the match to claim the doubles point at 6-4. Both winning court pairings for Tech now have multiple conference victories.
Duke worked their way back into the match through the early portion of singles, winning four of the opening six sets. Biagiotti stunted some of the momentum with a 7-4 first-set tiebreaker victory on Court 6. The ranked Blue Devils singles players served out straight set victories on Courts 1 and 2 to take the lead at 2-1.
Shokry completed a solid evening on Court 5, working through a back-and-forth first frame at 6-4 before winning the opening three games in the second set and winning off a double break point to level the team match at 2-2. Shokry earned his first ACC singles win of the season, his first since 2024 after being sidelined with injury all of last season.
The home team put themselves within distance of the win after a 6-4, 6-4 match on Court 3. Biagiotti faced a 3-0 deficit in the second set but began to fight back. He battled back to 3-2 before dropping another service game but stormed back triumphantly, winning four consecutive games to steal the momentum and level the match for the third time.
Biagiotti became the first Yellow Jacket this season to claim three conference single wins this season and won his fifth match on Court 6 this spring.
The match would be decided on Irwanto’s racket on Court 4. He dropped 6-2 in the first set before returning with a dominant frame himself at 6-1 to set up the third set. Both players were level at 5-5, Irwanto served out his match to go up 6-5 and held a 40-0 lead. Duke’s Dylan Long attacked on serve to regain footing with three consecutive points for the deuce match point.
Irwanto broke Long’s serve on the deciding point and Tech emerged victorious.
Georgia Tech will stay within the Research Triangle and face North Carolina on Sunday at noon. This will mark the final road match for the Jackets, their sixth road battle in the last eight contests.
#52 Georgia Tech 4, #51 Duke 3
Singles:
- #95 Pedro Rodenas (DUKE) def. Christophe Clement (GT) 6-4, 6-3
- #56 Cooper Williams (DUKE) def. Hidde Schoenmakers (GT) 6-4, 6-4
- Gerard Planelles Ripoll (DUKE) def. Gianluca Carlini (GT) 6-4, 6-4
- Jonathan Irwanto (GT) def. Dylan Long (DUKE) 2-6, 6-1, 7-5
- Elias Shokry (GT) def. Saahith Jayaraman (DUKE) 6-4, 6-4
- Richard Biagiotti (GT) def. Teddy Truwit (DUKE) 7-6 (4), 6-4
Doubles:
- #10 Cooper Williams/Pedro Rodenas (DUKE) def. Christophe Clement/Hidde Schoenmakers (GT) 6-2
- Jonathan Irwanto/Richard Biagiotti (GT) def. Gerard Planelles Ripoll/Teddy Truwit (DUKE) 6-4
- Gianluca Carlini/Elias Shokry (GT) def. Dylan Long/Saahith Jayaraman (DUKE) 6-3
Georgia Tech (10-7, 2-5 ACC) | Duke (8-9, 3-4 ACC)
Order of Finish: Doubles (1, 3, 2); Singles (2, 1, 5, 3, 6, 4)
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
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