Wake Forest Men’s Tennis Team Advances to Sweet 16

The #1 Ranked Wake Forest men’s tennis team continued to advance in the NCAA Tournament to the Sweet 16, in a way they slightly weren’t expecting. But hey, two wins are two wins right?

The Deacs came out, well indoors, firing on all cylinders on Friday. Due to the constant mist and eventually rain, the match with UNC-Wilmington was pushed indoors, but I wouldn’t say that made too much of a difference as Wake needed just over an hour and a half to dispatch the Seahawks.

The number one and two lines of doubles dropped only 2 games combined to take the doubles point and there was no looking back from there. Dennis Uspensky raced to a quick 6-0, 6-1 victory at 5, Number 5 ranked Petros Chrysochos eased to a 6-2, 6-0 victory at number 1 and Skander Mansouri finished things out at number 3, 6-2, 6-4 as the rest of the matches were suspended.

Kentucky beat Georgia State earlier in the day so the matchup for Saturday was set.

Once again on Sunday, the Deacs rolled in doubles with 6-2 wins at lines 1 and 3.

Then...things got a bit interesting. #45 Borna Gojo once again rolled to a 6-2, 6-0 victory over #66 ranked Ryotaro Matsumura for another quality win and to push the lead up to 2-0. Alan Gadjiev fell 6-4, 6-3 to Enzo Wallart to close the gap to 2-1.

Chrysochos then dropped a 6-4, 6-4 decision to a red hot #17 Will Bushamuka to tie the match up. From there Wake decided to put their foot on the gas. Chrisitian Seraphim closed out a tight win at the 4 singles, 6-3, 7-6(4) to take the lead for the Deacs once again. Skander Mansouri rallied from a 1 set deficit to close the match out with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Beck Pennington.

A little closer than the Deacs wanted, but once again, a win is a win.

Up next? Wake Forest hits the road to Athens for their Round of 16 matchup against a very gritty Stanford team on Thursday at 7 PM. Congrats to our Deacs and here’s to them hopefully moving forward