Virginia Women’s Tennis | No. 4 Virginia Closes Road Trip with 4-3 Win at No. 20 Duke

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 in a tiebreaker as Xu clinched the match with Katie Codd of Duke winning it 7-4 to close out the match.

The victory was Virginia’s fifth top-25 victory of the season.

ON THE HORIZON

• The Cavaliers close out the regular season with a pair of home games next weekend, hosting No. 19 Miami on Friday, April 12 at 4 p.m. and Florida State on Sunday, April 14 at noon for the Senior Day match
• Brackets for the ACC Championship will be released on Sunday, April 14

#4 Virginia 4, #20 Duke 3
Singles competition

1. #92 Annabelle Xu (VA) def. #82 Emma Jackson (DUKE) 1-6, 7-5, 6-4
2. #22 Hibah Shaikh (VA) def. #69 Shavit Kimchi (DUKE) 6-3, 6-4
3. #88 Iuliia Bryzgalova (DUKE) def. #59 Sara Ziodato (VA) 6-1, 6-4
4. #101 Katie Codd (DUKE) def. Natasha Subhash (VA) 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (4)
5. #91 Elaine Chervinsky (VA) def. Brianna Shvets (DUKE) 6-0, 6-1
6. Karolina Berankova (DUKE) def. Melodie Collard (VA) 6-3, 7-6 (8)

Doubles competition

1. #12 Melodie Collard/Elaine Chervinsky (VA) def. Katie Codd/Shavit Kimchi (DUKE) 6-4
2. #31 Natasha Subhash/Hibah Shaikh (VA) def. Emma Jackson/Karolina Berankova (DUKE) 7-5
3. Brianna Shvets/Iuliia Bryzgalova (DUKE) def. Annabelle Xu/Sara Ziodato (VA) 6-3

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