DURHAM, N.C. – The No. 4 Virginia women’s tennis team (18-3, 10-1 ACC) closed its weekend road trip with a 4-3 win at No. 20 Duke (13-7, 6-5 ACC) on Sunday (April 7) at the Ambler Tennis Stadium in Durham, N.C.
Virginia won the doubles point and took a 3-0 lead in the match. The Blue Devils won back-to-back singles matches to make it 3-2 before sophomore Annabelle Xu clinched the victory with a win on the top court.
Duke opened the match with a 6-3 win at No. 3 doubles, but juniors Mélodie Collard and Elaine Chervinsky evened it up with a 6-4 win at No. 1. Grad student Natasha Subhash and senior Hibah Shaikh clinched the point with a 7-5 win at No. 2.
In singles, Chervinsky won 6-0, 6-1 on five to put UVA ahead 2-0. Shaikh followed with a 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 2.
Duke won 6-4, 6-1 on three to earn their first point. The Blue Devils’ Karolina Berankova won a tiebreaker 10-8 to decide the second set on six to earn Duke’s second point and tighten the match at 3-2.
Xu had lost her first set 6-1 against Emma Jackson, but she edged Jackson 7-5 in the second set to force a third set. The third set was tied 4-4, but Xu held serve to go up 5-4. Xu then broke Jackson’s serve to take the final set 6-4 and clinch the victory for the Cavaliers.
The final court was…
