The No. 9 Texas A&M men’s tennis team fell into its first losing streak of the young season by dropping its match to No. 8 Duke University 5-2 on Saturday. The loss marks the Aggies’ second straight defeat after losing to No. 1 Illinois, 4-3, last week.
Duke was able to set the tone for the day by sweeping the doubles match. In the premier match-up of a No. 1 against a No. 2, it took a tiebreaker for Duke’s No. 2 doubles team of Ludovic Walter and Jason Zimmerman to squeak by the
Aggies’ top-ranked team of Lester Cook and Ante Matijevic 9-8 (4).
After capturing the ever-important doubles point, the Blue Devils went on to win four of the six singles matches.
“Duke was pretty good today,” said A&M head coach Tim Cass. “I take responsibility for the way our guys played. I’ve seen better efforts from Aggie tennis teams.”
Despite his first doubles loss of the season, Matijevic, ranked No. 19 in singles, was able to defeat Walter in singles action later that day. Walter, who is ranked seventh nationally, is the highest-ranked opponent Matijevic has defeated in his collegiate career.