April 28, 2017
ROME, Ga. – Downing the Duke Blue Devils, 4-3, Georgia Tech men’s tennis (17-6, 8-4 ACC) advances to the semifinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships on Friday afternoon at the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College. The third-seeded Jackets with face No. 1-seed Wake Forest at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 29.
Singles Update: Senior Carlos Benito went to work on court three, quickly evening the score at 1-1 with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Robert Levine. Junior Christopher Eubanks continued his dominance with a 61, 6-4 win over Spencer Furman at the one position to give Tech the lead at 2-1. Duke responded by taking down Daniel Yun on court five, 6-3, 6-3, bringing the tally to 2-2. Finishing almost simultaneously, Duke took court four over freshman Carlos Divar while Tech’s other freshman, Chris Yun, brought down Ryan Dickerson on court six, 6-4, 6-4. With the score knotted at 3-3, it all came down to Andrew Li on court two.
It was déjà vu for the two teams, whose last meeting in April came down to Li. Li engaged in a back and forth battle in the first, pocketing the set 7-5. With Li having the 5-4 advantage in the second, his opponent, Catalin Mateas, returned the sophomore’s serve long, sealing the match for Tech at 4-3.
Doubles Update: Duke took the doubles point, winning at the three and two positions. Melendez and Daniel Yun fell at the three spot, 6-3, to Mateas and TJ Pura to give Duke the advantage. The Blue Devils clinched the point with a 6-2 win over Cole Fiegel and Michael Kay on four.
Head coach Kenny Thorne says: “I am extremely proud of the way our guys bounced back in singles. I am especially happy with the leadership from Carlos Benito, as a senior, to tie it up and for Eubanks to continue to set the tone at the one spot to give us the 2-1 lead. We battled hard at the bottom of the lineup, with Chris Yun coming up with a big win for us. Once again it came down to Li and despite missing a few matches, he picked right back up and was able to get that win for us again. Now we look ahead towards Wake Forest tomorrow morning. They’re a good team and we had a great battle with them during the regular season so we’re looking forward to another good match.”
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