No. 20 Gamecocks Advance at ITA Kickoff Weekend
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – No. 20 South Carolina men’s tennis moved on to the next round of ITA Kickoff Weekend with a 4-1 win over No. 23 Duke at Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center Sunday morning. The Gamecocks took the doubles point and commanding leads in four of the six singles matches to build their second win of the season.
South Carolina and Duke each brought two ranked doubles teams into the match, but it was the Gamecocks’ unranked duo of Toby Samuel and Jake Beasley who got things rolling with a 6-2 victory in the No. 3 spot in the lineup. The top two matches were tight throughout with both getting to 5-5. From there the Gamecocks’ 59th-ranked duo of Raphael Lambling and Phillip Jordan held serve to go up 6-5 then stayed solid in a hotly contested 12th game to get the break and the 7-5 victory over No. 46 Luca Keist and Michael Heller.
In singles, No. 32 Daniel Rodrigues set the tone with an early 4-0 lead over Dukes Garrett Johns at the top of the lineup. Lambling also had an early break as the Gamecocks went onto win four of the six first sets.
Lambling blanked Edu Guell in the second to make it a 2-0 Gamecock lead, and Beasley completed his perfect morning with an efficient 6-3, 6-4 win over Michel Heller in the No. 6 spot. Duke closed to 3-1, but Jordan delivered the win for the second-straight match with his late break to claim a 6-4, 7-5 win over Samuel Rubell.
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(20) South Carolina def. (23) Duke 4-1
Doubles (Order of Finish: 3, 2)
1. (44) Daniel Rodrigues / Connor Thomson (SC) vs. (55) Sean Sculley/Garrett Johns (DU) 5-5 unfinished
2. (59) Raphael Lambling / Phillip Jordan (SC) def. (46) Luca Keist/Michael Heller (DU) 7-5
3. Jake Beasley / Toby Samuel (SC) def. Edu Guyell/Andrew Zhang (DU) 6-2
Singles (Order of Finish: 2, 6, 4, 5*)
1. (32) Daniel Rodrigues (SC) led Garrett Johns (DU) 6-1, 6-5 unfinished
2. (81) Raphael Lambling (SC) def. Edu Guell (DU) 6-4, 6-0
3. Sean Sculley (DU) led (118) Connor Thomson (SC) 7-5, 1-2 unfinished
4. Andrew Zhang (DU) def. Toby Smauel (SC) 6-4, 6-1
5. Phillip Jordan (SC) def. Samuel Rubell (DU) 6-4, 7-5
6. Jake Beasley (SC) def. Michael Heller (DU) 6-3, 6-4
