Blue Devil Duo Advances at NCAA Doubles Championship

WACO, Texas – Duke men’s tennis had a flair for the dramatic Wednesday at the 2024-25 NCAA Men’s Tennis NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships. Cooper Williams fell in a challenging three-set singles match while Williams and Theo Winegar stormed back to win their doubles match in three sets. 

Williams dropped a marathon match in the Round of 32 to Texas’ Timo Legout, seeded 9-16, 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-1. In the opening set, Williams fell behind 3-1 before clawing back to even the set at 3-3, 4-4 and 5-5. The two then traded breaks to send the set into the tiebreaker. Williams jumped ahead 2-0, only to fall behind 4-2 in the tiebreaker. He responded again to even the tiebreaker at 4-4, but fell behind again, this time at 6-4. From there, he ripped off the last four points to take the opening set. Legout took a quick 3-1 lead in the second set and earned a 4-2 advantage before a hold and break by Williams evened the action at 4-4. Legout, however, returned the favor and broke and held to even the match at a set apiece. The third set was controlled by Legout after jumping out to a 4-0 advantage and sealing the victory.  

Later in the afternoon, Williams and Winegar, seeded 5-8, came back to defeat Tanapatt Nirundorn and Henry Jefferson of Florida, 1-6, 7-6 (5), 1-0 (8), in the Round of 32. After the Gator duo took the first set, Williams and Winegar locked in and were even throughout the entire second set, forcing a tiebreaker. After falling being 2-0, the tiebreaker was even at 2-2, 3-3, 4-4 and 5-5 before the Duke pair ripped off the final two points to even the match. With the third set being a first-to-10 tiebreaker, Williams and Winegar again fell behind only to come back. Florida’s pair answered from a 2-0 hole to take seven-straight points and lead the tiebreaker 7-2. From there, it was all Duke as the Blue Devils claimed eight of the final nine points to capture the tiebreaker and match. 

Duke’s doubles team advances to the Round of 16 to face Ohio State’s Bryce Nakashima and William Jansen on Thursday at 3 p.m. 

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