No. 9 Duke Downs No. 1 Florida 4-1 to Advance to National Indoor Semifinals

Saturday, February 18

Seattle, Wash.

2 p.m.

Duke University

Florida

Two Singles Players, One Doubles Team Remain in Consolation Action at UVA Invitational

No. 9 Duke Downs No. 1 Florida 4-1 to Advance to National Indoor Semifinals

2/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

Seattle, Wash. - No. 9 Duke continued its run through the USTA-ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championships on Saturday, knocking out No. 1 Florida, 4-1 to advance to the semifinals for the fourth time in school history and first since 2001. The Blue Devils improved to 6-1 on the year and handed the Gators their first loss in seven contests.

For the second straight night, Duke started strong by taking the doubles point. Stephen Amritraj and Peter Rodrigues won the No. 2 doubles match, 8-4, against Florida's Nester Briceno and Stefan Tell to give the Blue Devils the edge and after the Gators won at No. 3, Duke took the point when No. 9 Joey Atas and Jonathan Stokke defeated Ryan Sweeting and Vlad Obradovic in the number one slot, 8-6. Atas and Stokke are now 3-0 in dual matches and 14-3 on the season.

Florida tied the score at 1-1 when Chris Brandi defeated Christopher Brown 6-3, 6-0 in the No. 5 singles match. However, Duke would put the pressure on, winning the No. 1 and No. 3 singles matches. No. 9 Ludovic Walter won in straight sets at No. 1 over Sweeting 6-3, 7-6 (6). With the win, Walter improves to 15-6 on the season and 5-1 in dual matches. He also moves into a tie with Marko Cerenko for third on the all-time singles victories list at Duke with 111. He is one win away from moving into a tie for second with Rob Chess. Rodrigues continued his impressive play, remaining undefeated in dual matches with a 7-0 record. He played No. 89 Obradovic at No. 3 and came back after losing the first set 6-4 to win the final two 6-4, 6-0.

Kiril Dimitrov, a freshman from Sofia, Bulgaria, clinched the match for the second straight day. He moved up to the No. 4 singles position after winning at No. 5 on Friday night to give Duke a 4-3 victory over No. 8 Baylor in the first round. On Saturday, Dimitrov won in straight sets against Briceno 6-4, 7-5 to give the Blue Devils the victory. Dimitrov improved to 4-2 in dual matches and has played at each of the bottom three spots for Duke. The No. 2 and No. 6 matches were not finished. Ned Samuelson was making his first appearance of the season in the singles lineup, playing in the sixth spot for the Blue Devils.

The Blue Devils advance to the semifinals where they will face No. 4 Pepperdine at 2 p.m. EST in the Nordstrom Tennis Center. The Waves defeated fifth-seeded Mississippi on Saturday, 4-2, to advance. In the first round, they won 4-0 against 13th-seeded Florida State. Duke has advanced to the semifinal round three times in their 17 appearances in the tournament (1999, 2000, 2001). They will be looking for their first ever trip to the finals and will try to become just the third ACC team to accomplish the feat.

#1 Florida vs. #9 Duke
Feb. 18, 2006 - Nordstrom Tennis Center
11:00 a.m.
Seattle, Wash.

	#1 Florida	1
	#9 Duke	4

Singles
1.		1	2	3
Florida	Ryan Sweeting	3	6 (6)	-
Duke	(9) Ludovic Walter	6	7	-
2.		1	2	3
Florida	Greg Ouellette	6	6 (5)	2 DNF
Duke	(20) Jonathan Stokke	2	7	5 DNF
3.		1	2	3
Florida	(90) Vlad Obradovic	6	4	0
Duke	Peter Rodrigues	4	6	6
4.		1	2	3
Florida	Nester Briceno	4	5	-
Duke	Kiril Dimitrov	6	7	-
5.		1	2	3
Florida	Chris Brandi	6	6	-
Duke	Christopher Brown	3	0	-
6.		1	2	3
Florida	Ryan Sherry	7	4	0 DNF
Duke	Ned Samuelson	6 (4)	6	2 DNF

Doubles
1.		1	2	3
Florida	Sweeting/Obradovic	6	-	-
Duke	(9) Stokke/Atas	8	-	-
2.		1	2	3
Florida	Holmia/Ouellette	4	-	-
Duke	Rodriguez/Amritraj	8	-	-
3.		1	2	3
Florida	Briceno/Tell	8	-	-
Duke	Walter/Samuelson	5	-	-