MT Upsets No. 7 Duke on Day Two of ITA Indoor Championships

Saturday, February 15

Waco, Texas

6:30 PM

Baylor

Duke

MT Upsets No. 7 Duke on Day Two of ITA Indoor Championships

2/16/2025 12:35:00 AM | Men's Tennis

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Bears win 4-2 to grab first top 10 win of the season

WACO, Texas – After facing heartbreaks throughout the indoor season, Baylor men's tennis showed no quit and came out on top on Saturday night at Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center, defeating No. 7 Duke 4-2.

The Bears slow start did not hold them back, as all four points came from singles wins. Two second set tiebreaker wins and two third set victories were the key to success for Baylor (7-5) to earn its first top 10 victory of the season over the Blue Devils (7-2).

THE RUNDOWN
Baylor's doubles started out on a lull as No. 9 Marko Miladinovic and Oskar Brostrom Poulsen fell 6-4 on Court One. However, Zsombor Velcz and Alexandru Chirita held on in a tiebreaker to take Court Two 7-6(2). All coming down to Court Two, Devin Badenhorst and Luc Koenig went down to a tiebreaker to see who would take the first point, but the South African pair couldn't hold on, falling 7-6(4) for Duke to go up early.

In singles, four out of six Bears took the early lead with winning the first set. The second set was where the Bears showed true resilience.

After Brostrom Poulsen dropped his match 6-2, 6-4 and Duke went up 2-0, Velcz locked in on his match on Court Three. Forcing a tiebreaker, Velcz held on for the victory 6-3, 7-6(3) to put the Bears on the board, 2-1.

Badenhorst on Court One was similar minded, facing off with a ranked matchup against Duke's No. 58 Williams. Badenhorst came back from a 3-5 deficit in the second set to force a tiebreaker. There, Badenhorst took the momentum with a 6-4, 7-6(4) ranked win to tie the match 2-2.

Chirita, playing on Court Four for the first time this season, had a dominant first set but fell in the second, 6-2, 4-6. However, the Romanian graduate held nothing back in the third to show true dominance and put the Bears with the lead at 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.

With the match at 3-2, it all came down to Louis Bowden on Court Five and Miladinovic on Court Six. Miladinovic looked like he was almost defeated midway through the second set after falling in the first 3-6. The senior captain went on to come back from a 5-1 deficit and hold off five match points in the second set to take the set 7-5. Miladinovic's third set would go unfinished.

Bowden carried the momentum in the first set 6-3 but fell flat in the second set 4-6. Now in the third set with the match on the line, it was a back-and-forth battle between the Britain and Duke's Planelles Ripoll. However, the momentum swung in the Bears' favor as Bowden took the match 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to give Baylor the top-10 win 4-2.

HEAR FROM HEAD COACH MICHAEL WOODSON
"Heck of an effort from the senior captain, [Marko Miladinovic]. He just led. He was down and out. I don't know how many match points he saved throughout that. I was just honestly trying to focus on Alex because he had some momentum in the start of the third, I was trying to get Marko to hang around. It applies so much more pressure to your opponent if guys are still out on the court. It doesn't matter what the score is. He was able to gain some momentum, the crowd got behind him, and he just played some of the best tennis I've ever seen from him.

The pressure shifts to 'I should've lost, but now I'm in a winning position.' At that moment, we're up 3-2. We won two massive tiebreakers, and Louis and Marko had each other. That makes it easier. The guys off the court did a phenomenal job. Super proud of them. Duke didn't beat themselves. We went out and beat them, which is impressive."

On what this win means for the overall season…
"We've played the top-four teams in the country four times, and we've played two other top-10 teams. To now finally to get over the hump when it felt like we were just not going to knock down the door. It feels like only a matter of time, but it gets frustrating as a team and a staff. We challenged them after last night to get up off the mat and show them what we're made of. We started slow, but we showed a ton of resilience. At the end of the day, this is a win that will turn our season into a very positive direction."

WHAT'S NEXT
The Bears now face No. 2 Ohio State in the final day of the consolation bracket of the ITA Indoor Championships at 3:30 on Sunday, Feb. 16 in Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.

- BaylorBears.com -