Quick Take
Duke men’s tennis enters 2026 ACC play at 5-4 overall, ranked No. 20 nationally. Cooper Williams and Pedro Rodenas anchor an elite top two — Williams upset the No. 9 player in the country this season, and Rodenas went 4-0 in dual singles before the road trip losses. The depth below them is young and still developing, but ACC play starting February 27 is when it gets real.
Where Is Duke Men’s Tennis Ranked in the 2026 ITA Poll?
Duke men’s tennis entered 2026 preseason ranked No. 17 in the ITA Coaches Poll, one spot better than where the program finished in 2025. The Blue Devils currently sit at No. 20 nationally with a 5-4 overall record, after sweeping Campbell 7-0 on February 19 to open the outdoor season. That puts Duke right in the middle of a crowded ACC field heading into what will be its toughest stretch of competition yet.
Three Blue Devils hold individual rankings in the current ITA singles ledger. Cooper Williams leads the group at No. 68, followed by Gerard Planelles Ripoll at No. 118 and Pedro Rodenas at No. 95. In doubles, the Williams/Rodenas pairing has climbed to No. 32 nationally after an outstanding start to the season together. Eight ACC programs were ranked in the ITA top 25 to open 2026, with Wake Forest sitting at No. 1, making the conference as deep as any in the country.
The ACC slate per GoDuke.com opens at home against California on February 27 at 3 p.m., then Stanford on March 1. Duke then hits the road for six consecutive ACC matches before returning home. It’s a schedule that will test this young roster quickly, and how coach Ramsey Smith’s group handles that stretch will define the season.
Who Are the Key Players on Duke Men’s Tennis in 2026?
The top of this roster is genuinely elite. Cooper Williams and Pedro Rodenas are two of the better players in college tennis at their respective positions, and everything about the 2026 season so far suggests they’re playing at or above last year’s level. Below them, head coach Ramsey Smith has acknowledged openly that courts three through five look different in 2026, with none of the regular ACC contributors from those spots returning from last spring.
Transfer Gerard Planelles Ripoll arrived from Arkansas carrying a second-team All-SEC nod and a résumé win over J.C. Roddick at Texas A&M. The 6-foot-4 Alicante, Spain native has slotted into the middle of Duke’s lineup and holds the No. 118 national singles ranking. Freshman Dylan Long came in as a blue-chip prospect ranked No. 1 nationally in his recruiting class and is already competing in dual matches. Alexander Visser, limited by injuries for most of 2025, already has more dual match wins in 2026 than he tallied all of last year, and he’s also picked up three doubles wins. Saahith Jayaraman rounds out the lineup as a sophomore who’s been putting in work to earn court time.
The pieces are in place. Getting consistent results from positions three through six against ACC-caliber competition is the next step.
Why Is Cooper Williams One of Duke’s Most Exciting Athletes Right Now?
Cooper Williams isn’t just a top college tennis player. He’s a legitimate professional prospect playing college tennis as a junior. His backstory is unusual: before transferring to Duke, he won the Australian Open Junior Doubles title in 2023, reached an ITF career-high ranking of No. 3 as a junior, and earned USTA national recognition across multiple age groups. He was ranked No. 1 nationally in his recruiting class when he arrived in Durham.
Last summer, Williams and graduate Theo Winegar qualified for the 2025 US Open Main Draw by winning the American Collegiate Wild Card playoff in Orlando. The two won their opening-round match at the US Open over Petr Nouza and Patrik Rikl before pushing the No. 4-seeded doubles team to two tight tiebreak sets in round two. Williams also won back-to-back singles Futures titles in Monastir, Tunisia during the fall. That’s not a list of results you see from many college juniors.
He brought that form back to Duke in 2026. His signature win of the season so far came at the ITA Kickoff Weekend, where he defeated No. 9-ranked Martin Borisiouk of NC State, 6-2, 6-4, on court one. Per GoDuke.com, that was the highest-ranked singles win of Williams’ Duke career. He’s currently 4-1 on court one in 2026 dual matches. His only loss came to No. 10 Kenta Miyoshi of Illinois in a match that went to a tiebreaker in the second set before Williams dropped it 8-6. He was right there until the end.
What Has Pedro Rodenas Contributed to Duke Men’s Tennis in 2026?
Pedro Rodenas might be the most consistent player on this roster, and that’s saying something given what Williams has done this spring. The senior entered 2026 preseason ranked No. 13 nationally in singles and has delivered exactly what the preseason ranking suggested. He went 4-0 in dual singles before the road losses to Illinois and Georgia, winning all four matches on court two without dropping a set, including a dominant 6-4, 6-0 victory over No. 73 Alex Frusina of Texas A&M at the ITA Kickoff Weekend.
His partnership with Williams in doubles has been one of the best in college tennis this season. The two earned Co-ACC Doubles Team of the Week honors to open the season after going 2-0 on court one in the opening weekend against Elon and NC Central. According to GoDuke.com, the duo then beat the NC State tandem 6-2 and the Texas A&M pair 6-2 in the ITA Kickoff Weekend, winning their first six doubles matches together before the Georgia loss. Their current national doubles ranking of No. 32 reflects a partnership that’s been one of the most reliable points Duke gets in any given match.
Rodenas also qualified for the 2025 ITF Men’s College Accelerator Program during the fall, competing at the professional level alongside his Duke commitments. He’s a three-time All-ACC Singles Second Team honoree and led Duke in ranked singles victories with nine in 2024-25. For a program still figuring out its identity behind the top two spots, having Rodenas go out and win his court almost every match is an anchor that gives Smith’s group a real floor to build from.
How Does Duke Men’s Tennis Home Court Help in ACC Play?
One of the underrated edges for Duke this spring is its home record. Since the start of the 2023 dual match season, the Blue Devils are 42-5 at home, a .894 winning percentage. Duke has not lost a home non-conference match since dropping a 4-3 decision to Northwestern on February 5, 2023. The Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center has been one of the toughest home venues in the ACC for over a decade.
The outdoor picture at Ambler Tennis Stadium is also improving. Duke debuted a new video board for the Campbell match on February 19, with coach Ramsey Smith crediting the gameday operations team for working around the clock to get it ready. Smith called it “really special,” noting the player introductions, hype video, and National Anthem playing on the new board for the first time. Creating a better atmosphere for outdoor home matches matters when you’re trying to hold serve against ranked conference opponents, and Duke has every reason to expect Cal and Stanford to feel that edge when they come to Durham at the end of February.
Duke is 4-0 at home in 2026, and the two ACC home matches against Cal and Stanford to open conference play are very much winnable. Both programs have the pedigree to make things competitive, but the Blue Devils are comfortable in Durham in a way visitors rarely are.
What Does the 2026 ACC Schedule Look Like for Duke Men’s Tennis?
Duke opens ACC play Friday, February 27 against California at 3 p.m. at Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center, then hosts Stanford on Sunday, March 1 at noon. From there, the Blue Devils hit the road for six consecutive conference matches: at SMU (March 6), Boston College (March 8), Virginia (March 13), and Virginia Tech (March 15). That stretch is where the character of this team gets tested.
The return home for Georgia Tech (March 20), Clemson (March 22), NC State (March 27), and Wake Forest (March 29) gives Duke a chance to build momentum heading into April. Florida State (April 3), Miami (April 5), and the season finale against North Carolina (April 11) close out the regular season before the ACC Championship at Cary Tennis Park, April 16-19.
The match against Wake Forest on March 29 stands out. Wake enters 2026 as the No. 1 team in the country and has been the standard in ACC men’s tennis for several years. Duke beat rival UNC in the final regular season match of 2025 to cap the year, and a similar statement against a top-ranked team late in the season is exactly the kind of result that could change the trajectory of where this team gets seeded come NCAA time. Coach Smith told GoDuke.com after the Campbell win: “I really believe in this team. I think we can do great things.” The ACC schedule is going to tell us whether he’s right.
