Liberty University
Duke
No. 3 Seed Liberty Falls 4-1 to No. 2 Seed Duke at ITA Kickoff Weekend
1/29/2022 7:48:34 PM | Men's Tennis
Third-seeded Liberty fell 4-1 to second-seeded Duke in Saturday’s ITA Kickoff Weekend semifinal match at the new Carolina Indoor Tennis Center.
Liberty drops to 1-2 this season, while Duke stays unbeaten and improves to 3-0. The Flames will meet No. 4 seed LSU in Sunday’s consolation match at 11 a.m. The Blue Devils advance to face No. 1 seed and 13th-ranked South Carolina in tomorrow afternoon’s championship match at 2 p.m.
Duke 4, Liberty 1
Singles Competition
- #76 Johns, Garrett (DU) def. Nicaise Muamba (LIBERTYM) 6-2, 6-1
- Zhang, Andrew (DU) vs. Josh Wilson (LIBERTYM) 6-4, 4-6, unfinished
- #38 Khan, Faris (DU) def. R. Marques Da Silva (LIBERTYM) 7-5, 6-2
- Christiaan Worst (LIBERTYM) def. Krug, Connor (DU) 6-2, 6-3
- Dale, Andrew (DU) def. Deji Thomas-Smith (LIBERTYM) 6-3, 7-5
- Vallabhaneni, Niroop (DU) vs. Thando Longwe-Smit (LIBERTYM) 6-3, 4-5, unfinished
Doubles Competition
- #37 Johns, Garrett/Sculley, Sean (DU) def. Deji Thomas-Smith/Christiaan Worst (LIBERTYM) 6-2
- #39 Zhang, Andrew/Heller, Michael (DU) def. Nicaise Muamba/R. Marques Da Silva (LIBERTYM) 6-3
- Khan, Faris/Vallabhaneni, Niroop (DU) vs. Goncalo Ferreira/Josh Wilson (LIBERTYM) 4-5, unfinished
Liberty 1-2
Duke 3-0
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (1,4,3,5)
ITA Kickoff Weekend
T-2:10
How It Happened
• Liberty’s Christiaan Worst was the lone Flame to pick up a point today. The Pretoria, South Africa native defeated Duke’s Connor Krug in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3. His victory brought the Flames within a point of the Blue Devils (2-1) at that juncture in the match.
• Worst leads Liberty with two singles wins so far this spring.
• The Blue Devils won the doubles point on the strength of their two top-40 doubles teams. Duke’s top unit, No. 37 Garrett Johns and Sean Sculley defeated Liberty’s Deji Thomas-Smith and Worst 6-2. The Blue Devils’ No. 39 Andrew Zhang and Michael Heller upended Nicaise Muamba and Rafael Marques Da Silva of the Flames 6-2 on court two.
• Duke’s No. 1, No. 3 and No. 5 singles player accounted for a point apiece by winning their respective matches. Johns, also the 76th-ranked singles player in the country, avenged a loss to Muamba during the 2021 season with a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 1 singles.
• Faris Khan, Duke’s No. 3 player and No. 38-ranked player in the nation, battled back from a 5-4 set one deficit to Liberty’s Marques Da Silva and won 7-5, 6-2. Khan’s decision pushed the Duke lead to 3-1.
• Duke’s fourth and final point came from Andrew Dale on court five, 6-3, 7-5 over Thomas-Smith.
• Duke bolsters its record to 2-0 against Liberty. The Blue Devils also topped the Flames 5-2 on March 31, 2021.
• Liberty is 0-3 all-time at the ITA Kickoff Weekend event, featuring the top teams in the nation. The Flames have lost matches to Duke (Saturday), Texas (2021) and Arizona (2021).
Next Up
• Liberty will take on No. 4 seed LSU (2-1), Sunday morning at 11 a.m. LSU owns a 1-0 edge in the all-time series. The two teams have not met since 2014.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
1,2
#1 Singles Match
#2 Singles Match
#3 Singles Match
#4 Singles Match
#5 Singles Match
#6 Singles Match
Order of Finish:
1,4,3,5