Guzal Yusupova walked back toward the Syracuse bench after a soft net handshake with Duke’s Kelly Chen. Yusupova’s eyes stared at the ground as she walked back to her bench, and she slammed her racket against the tennis bag twice before Jennifer Meredith walked over. 

The Orange’s top singles player had just lost her singles match in a third-set tiebreaker, 10-6. Yusupova had a chance to beat the No. 7 player in the country but eventually trailed off.

Yusupova and the rest of No. 25 Orange (6-2, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) lost their match, 7-0, against No. 10 Duke (9-2, 2-1) and lost 14 of 16 sets overall. Net hit after net hit, out after out and groan after groan from the crowd. After opening the season with a six-match winning streak, Syracuse has now lost two-straight — including 4-2 to Columbia last Friday.

“They are a top-ten team for a reason,” Syracuse head coach Younes Limam said.

The Orange already faced an uphill battle when four ranked singles opponents and a ranked doubles pairing strolled onto the Drumlins Country Club courts before the match, compared to Syracuse’s only ranked player: No. 77 Yusupova.

Yusupova started her match serving and at 30-30, a 13-hit rally ended when she dropped a shot out-of-bounds. Chen and the senior battled back-and-forth and exchanged the lead continually during that opening set. Whenever Chen’s shots went out-of-bounds and she winced at the lost point, Yusupova responded with an out-of-bounds hit of her own.

Chen eventually rallied back against Yusupova to tie the first set, 1-1, and had Yusupova running from alley lane to alley lane during a 30-all point. The senior could only respond with a backhand that flew out of bounds.

When Yusupova smashed a winner past Chen and pushed ahead 4-3, Chen clenched her teeth and complained to head coach Jamie Ashworth. Despite all of Chen’s frustrations, she topped Yusupova 7-5 in their opening set.

That paralleled Syracuse’s other matches against the Blue Devils, who had already clinched because of victories against Syracuse’s Miranda Ramirez (6-1, 6-2), Zeynep Erman (6-1, 6-3) and Sonya Treshcheva (6-4, 6-3). The Orange couldn’t recover from a lost doubles point, something they did against St. John’s on Feb. 4 and Boston College on Feb. 15.

Yusupova battled back in her second set and took advantage of Chen’s frustrations from earlier. Slices agitated Chen, and at one point Yusupova fired an ace past the Duke junior, who had no reaction.

“Guzal is the biggest fighter I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Erman postgame. “She never gives up, she fights for every ball, she’s the number one.”

To start the third set, Chen took the lead 3-0 after a few net hits and long balls from the SU senior. Then, it extended to 4-0 after another out-of-bounds hit from Yusupova — who hit her racket on the court in frustration. Despite three straight-points from Yusupova in the tiebreak, Chen rebuilt her lead back to four after a few long rallies, an overhead spike and a backhand winner.

By that point, the rest of Syracuse had gathered alongside court three. Duke blew past each of the bottom five singles matches with ease and ensured the Orange wouldn’t beat their second ranked opponent this season. Yusupova swung her racket back and forth, awaiting Chen’s serve.

“That’s it Guzal,” Kim Hansen shouted, still trying to encourage from the sidelines.

But Yusupova hit one straight into the net through with her backhand, and eventually Chen’s cross-court forehand flew across while Yusupova watched aimlessly. Minutes later, the Orange clumped together for their postgame stretching circle. Duke had successfully handled both of Syracuse’s doubles matches, all five of the previous singles and even solved the Orange’s top-ranked player.

“I can promise you we are going to watch more (film) this week,” Limam said.

Published on February 23, 2020 at 6:16 pm

Contact Christopher: cscargla@syr.edu | @chrisscargs