Duke Advances to ACC Championship Match with 4-2 Win Over Florida State

Saturday, April 22

Cary, N.C.

10 a.m.

Duke University

Florida State - Semifinals

Kiril Dimitrov Named ACC Men?s Tennis Performer of the Week

Duke Advances to ACC Championship Match with 4-2 Win Over Florida State

4/22/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis

By: Duke Sports Information

CARY, N.C. ? Following a four-hour rain delay and a move to the University of North Carolina's indoor tennis center, top-seeded Duke claimed a 4-2 victory over fifth-seeded Florida State in the ACC semifinals to advance to their 13th championship match since 1990.

The No. 3 Blue Devils started their match at 9 a.m. and continued to play well in doubles. They won at the No. 2 and No. 3 positions for the second straight day to clinch the doubles point. They have now won the doubles point in 18 of their last 21 matches and 13th straight. The last doubles point Duke lost was March 15 when they lost two of three matches against No. 9 UCLA. The Blue Devils rallied from behind after No. 22 Joey Atas and Jonathan Stokke fell at the No. 1 slot, 8-5, to Ytai Abougzir and Jonathas Sucupira. Duke tied the match when Ned Samuelson and Ludovic Walter defeated Maciek Sykut and Andrew Bailey, 8-3. Samuelson and Walter improved to 14-6 in dual matches with the victory. In a close match at No. 2, Stephen Amritraj and Peter Rodrigues won for the 15th time this season in doubles, clinching the match with an 8-6 win against Jonathas Sucupira and Sam Chang.

Midway through the singles matches, the rain started to come down and forced a delay that would push the match back until 4 p.m. when the two teams started back up again. The Blue Devils came out with a charge as Walter, ranked sixth in the country, quickly finished off No. 32 Abougzir in the No. 1 match, 6-0, 6-2 to put Duke ahead 2-0. Walter has now defeated 17 ranked players and improves to 28-11 on the year and 18-6 in dual matches. He is also 124-41 in his career at Duke.
The Seminoles cut the lead in half with a victory by Chris Cloer at the No. 6 slot. He defeated Amritraj in three sets, 6-3, 0-6, 3-6. No. 58 Jonathan Stokke put the pressure on No. 19 Florida State as he cruised over No. 105 Sucupira on the indoor courts. Stokke lost the first set 7-5 and trailed 2-1 in the second before scoring five straight points for a 6-2 win. He then won handily in the third set 6-2 to give Duke the 3-1 advantage. Stokke is now 13-10 in dual contests and 28-17 overall this season.

Chang pulled out a tiebreaker in the second set against No. 81 Rodrigues to keep the Seminoles hopes alive. Chang won a close first set 7-5 and then won the tiebreaker 7-6 to make the match score 3-2. With only the No. 4 and No. 5 matches remaining, both matches came down to the third set. Kiril Dimitrov was able to clinch the match for Duke in the fifth slot. He earned a 6-2 victory over Chris Westerhof in the first set. Westerhof bounced back to take the second set, 6-2, but Dimitrov fought back from a 3-2 defecit to take a 5-4 lead. He then closed out the match to send the Blue Devils to the ACC Finals for the first time since 2003 when they defeated Clemson, 4-1, for the championship. Dimitrov improved to 16-8 on the season and 14-7 in dual match play. The No. 4 match was between Atas and Sykut. Atas lost the first set 6-2 but came back to win 6-3 in the second. He was ahead 3-2 in the third when the No. 5 match finished.

Duke is 10-2 in ACC Championship matches under Head Coach Jay Lapidus. They will await the winner of the semifinal match between second-seeded Virginia and third-seeded Miami. The championship match will take place Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Cary Tennis Center in Cary, N.C.

2006 ACC Championships
April 22, 2006 - Cary, N.C. (9 a.m.)
Cary Tennis Center

TheACC.com's Men's Tennis Central

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Rain Delayed - Restarted at 4 p.m. at University of North Carolina

No. 3 Duke
4

vs.

No. 19 Florida State 2

Singles
1.		3	2	3
Duke	#6 Ludovic Walter	6	6	-
FSU	#32 Ytai Abougzir	0	2	-
2.		1	2	3
Duke	#58 Jonathan Stokke	5	6	6
FSU	#105 Jonathas Sucupira	7	2	2
3.		1	2	3
Duke	#81 Peter Rodrigues	5	6	-
FSU	Sam Chang	7	7	-
4.		1	2	3
Duke	Joey Atas	2	6	3%
FSU	Maciek Sykut	6	3	2
5.		1	2	3
Duke	Kiril Dimitrov	6	2	6*
FSU	Chris Westerhof	2	6	4
6.		1	2	3
Duke	Stephen Amritraj	6	0	3
FSU	Chris Cloer	3	6	6

Doubles
1.		1
Duke	#22 Atas & Stokke	5
FSU	Abougzir & Westerhof	8
2.		1
Duke	Amritraj & Rodrigues	8
FSU	Sucupira & Chang	6
3.		1
Duke	Samuelson & Walter	8
FSU	Sykut & Bailey	3