DURHAM, N.C. —  The No. 12-seeded Duke men's tennis team defeated No. 41-ranked Cornell, 4-1, in second-round action of the NCAA Tournament at a warm and blustery Armbler Tennis Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The victory for the Blue Devils (21-7) ensures its spot in the Super Regionals against its ACC rival No. 5-seeded Virginia (26-4) next weekend in Charlottesville, Va.

Cornell concludes its 2022-23 campaign with an 18-7 overall record, as the Big Red was appearing in its third NCAA Tournament and its second as an at-large selection.

The Blue Devils' top doubles tandem of Garrett Johns and Pedro Rodenas, who were ranked No. 25 nationally, defeated Cornell sophomore duo of Adit Sinha and Nathan Mao 6-3, but junior Samuel Paquette and freshman Petar Teodorovic won at No. 2 doubles, 6-4, forcing the No. 3 doubles match to be the decider of who receives the match's first point.

Sophomores Radu Papoe and Aman Sharma battled against Duke's Faris Khan and Niroop Vallabhaneni, but the Blue Devils pair won 7-5 to take the opening point.

In singles action, Duke won the first set in all six singles matches, making a Cornell comeback attempt that much more difficult.

Senior Vladislav Melnic retired during the second set of his match against Rodenas, who was ranked No. 52 in singles. Rodenas had the advantage, 6-2, 2-1, while up 15-0 in the third game of the set at the time of Melnic's retirement.

Duke increased its lead to 3-0 after consecutive 6-3 victories by Andrew Dale over Mao on court No. 5.

Teodorovic and Paquette forced third sets on the respective No. 4 and No. 6 courts, adding intrigue to the fans to the top two matches that remained in the second set.

Papoe and No. 12-ranked Johns on the No. 1 court, as well as Sinha and Andrew Zhang on court No. 3 both played nail-biting second sets that came down to the wire.

Trailing 5-4 in the second set, No. 88-ranked Papoe held serve by winning a point at 40-all to prevent Johns from posting the straight-set victory and give Duke the victory after four matches.

Both the Papoe-Johns and Sinha-Zhang matches needed second-set tiebreaks after both sets concluded with 6-6 scores.

Sinha recorded the victory in his tiebreak, 7-4, to force a third set. Immediately following Sinha's victory, Teodorovic logged Cornell's lone point of the day posting a come-from-behind 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Connor Krug.

Papoe then forced a third set when he won the tiebreak over Johns, 8-6, but seconds after Papoe's tiebreak win, Khan won over Paquette 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to clinch the Blue Devils' spot at Super Regionals.

Match Notes

• Cornell and Duke met for the first time on Sunday afternoon.

• The Big Red is now 2-3 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and has lost its last two appearances in the second round (2017 – Baylor).

• The tandem of Paquette and Teodorovic won its 14th doubles match on the season, while improving to 3-0 at No. 2 doubles.

• Teodorovic's match at No. 4 singles went to a third set for the third consecutive match and for the fourth time in his last five outings.

• Paquette forced a third set for the first time since March 18 against Penn State, which was the last of six consecutive three-set matches for the junior from Brossard, Québec.