Wake Forest Athletics
Three Deacons Selected to NCAA Individual Championships
5/4/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
NCAA Release
By Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeMTennis)
INDIANAPOLIS – Three members of the Wake Forest men's tennis team were selected to compete in the 2016 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Singles and Doubles Championships, the NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Subcommittee announced on Wednesday.
Skander Mansouri and Petros Chrysochos were at-large selections for the singles championships, while the duo of Mansouri and Christian Seraphim was an at-large selection for the doubles tournament.
In total, 64 singles players and 32 doubles teams that will compete in the championships, which will be held from May 25-30 at the University of Tulsa's Michael D. Case Tennis Center following the conclusion of the NCAA Team Championships, which will take place at the same venue.
All matches shall be the best-of-three sets. No-ad scoring and a seven-point tiebreaker at six-games-all will be used for all matches. In doubles, a 10-point match tiebreaker will be played in lieu of a third set.
Mansouri and Seraphim will be making their second appearance in the NCAA Doubles Tournament. The tandem reached the second round in 2015, defeating Alabama's Becker O'Shaughnessey and Korey Lovett before falling in three sets to Julian Lenz and Diego Galeano of host Baylor.
In singles, both Mansouri and Chrysochos will be making their debuts at the event. Last season, the Deacs were represented at the NCAA Singles Championships by Noah Rubin and Romain Bogaerts. Rubin made the deepest run ever by a Demon Deacon, reaching the tournament's final match before falling in three sets to Virginia's Ryan Shane.
A First Team All-ACC selection this season, Mansouri will be a No. 9-16 seed in the singles tournament. The 13th-ranked sophomore is 30-9 in 2015-16, including 18-6 on the spring. At the No. 1 position, the Tunis, Tunisia native is 13-6. Mansouri, who won the ITA Carolina Region singles title in the fall, has downed nine ranked opponents in the spring season alone. In his last outing, he topped defending tournament champion Shane in the Deacs' ACC Tournament championship win.
Chrysochos has made an immediate impact of Wake Forest's lineup since joining the squad just prior to the spring season, going 21-3 in singles, including 9-1 against ranked opponents. He enters the NCAA Tournament with an 18-2 record at the second singles spot. The Larnaca, Cyprus native is currently ranked 28th in the nation.
As a pairing, Mansouri and Seraphim are 21-13 this year with a 16-8 ledger at the top flight in dual matches. They have defeated nine ranked tandems this spring. In two seasons together, the duo is 42-21 with 19 ranked triumphs. They are currently ranked 13th and have climbed as high as No. 10 this season. They vaulted to No. 9 in 2015.
The Demon Deacons open NCAA Tournament play as a team next Friday at 3 p.m. when they play host to Coastal Carolina. The Deacs are hosting a regional for the second year in a row and will also welcome Michigan and East Tennessee State to Winston-Salem.
Players Mentioned
