Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest University
NCAA Singles & Doubles Championships
Three Deacs Qualify For NCAA Sweet 16
5/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
By Andrew Wilson, Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeMTennis)
WACO, Texas - Seventh-seeded Noah Rubin of the Wake Forest men's tennis team again etched his name in the program's 62-year history by becoming the first Demon Deacon to reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Singles Championship as members of the 12th-ranked Deacs competed Thursday at Hurd Tennis Center at Baylor University.
Additionally, the No. 13 doubles duo of Skander Mansouri and Christian Seraphim topped Alabama's Korey Lovett and Becker O'Shaughnessey 7-6 (4), 6-4 to advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Doubles Championship. Playing simultaneously with Rubin, No. 16 Romain Bogaerts fell 6-2, 6-0 to Jeremy Efferding of Texas A&M.
Rubin, who is No. 6 in the ITA singles poll and the No. 7-seed in the tournament, reached the Round of 16 by topping No. 50 Chris Diaz of Ohio State by the score of 6-3, 6-2. Battling with Diaz back and forth to open the match, the two held serve to 3-3 before Rubin rattled off six games in a row to win the first set 6-3 and go up 3-0 in the second set. From there, the two each held serve until Rubin came out the victor.
In their first match of the doubles competition, Mansouri and Seraphim fought the Alabama pairing to 5-5 with each duo holding serve before Lovett and O'Shaughnessey broke the Wake Forest team to go up 6-5 in the set. With the chance to take the first set, Alabama faltered on serve as Mansouri and Seraphim broke back to send the first set to a tiebreaker. There, the Deacon duo picked up a 7-4 victory to clinch the first set. In the second set, the two sides again held serve until the set reached 4-4. With the Crimson Tide serving, Mansouri and Seraphim broke the Alabama duo and subsequently held serve to finish off the victory.
Rubin, a freshman, is now 2-0 all-time in the singles tournament. The two wins puts him with Bogaerts as the only two players in school history to have won more than one match in the singles championship. David Loewenthal in 2002 and Todd Paul in 2006 are the only other two Deacs to have earned wins in the singles tournament. Bogaerts holds a 2-3 record overall in three appearance. As a freshman at Mississippi State, he fell in the first round before making second-round exits in each of the last two seasons.
Mansouri and Seraphim became the sixth Wake Forest duo all-time to earn at least one win in the doubles championship. Last time the Demon Deacons had a pair in the doubles tournament in 2010, Iain Atkinson and Steven Forman advanced to the Elite Eight before falling to a duo from Tennessee.
Rubin will now take on No. 15 Yannick Hanfmann of USC Friday at 11 a.m. ET. Hanfmann is one of the players seeded No. 9-16 in the tournament. He topped No. 53 Christopher Eubanks of Georgia Tech in the second round by the score of 6-2, 6-0 and beat No. 44 Dane Webb of Oklahoma 6-3, 6-1 in the first round.
Mansouri and Seraphim will now battle Baylor's No. 5-8 duo of Julian Lenz and Diego Galeano, as the eighth-ranked Bears' duo beat Texas A&M's 10th-ranked pair of Harrison Adams and Shane Vinsant 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 on Thursday. That contest will be played at 1 p.m. ET at Hurd Tennis Center.
NCAA Men's Tennis Championships
Singles competition
#6 [7] Noah Rubin (Wake Forest) def. #50 Chris Diaz (Ohio State) 6-3, 6-2
#47 Jeremy Efferding (Texas A&M) def. #16 [9-16] Romain Bogaerts (Wake Forest) 6-2, 6-0
Doubles competition
#13 Skander Mansouri/Christian Seraphim (Wake Forest) def. #25 Becker OShaughnessey/Korey Lovett (Alabama) 7-6 (7-4), 6-4
Tournament Notes
Singles - Second Round | Doubles - First Round
Rubin - First Wake Forest player ever to advance to Singles Sweet 16
Mansouri/Seraphim - Sixth Wake Forest duo to win at least one match in NCAA doubles
Players Mentioned
