Wake Forest Athletics
Mansouri and Seraphim Reach NCAA Semifinals
5/27/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
By Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeMTennis)
ATHENS, Ga. – The Wake Forest duo of Christian Seraphim and Skander Mansouri advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Doubles Championship during Saturday's quarterfinal action of the 2017 NCAA Individual Championships at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. The Demon Deacon pair downed North Carolina's Robert Kelly and William Blumberg 7-6(6), 3-6, 13-11 to reach the semifinals.
Seraphim and Mansouri are the third Demon Deacon pair to reach the NCAA doubles semifinals, matching the feat of Christian Dallwitz and Mark Greenan in 1988 and Mariusz Adamski and Todd Paul in 2007. They will look to be the first Wake Forest team to reach the NCAA doubles final when they play Oklahoma's Andrew Harris and Spencer Papa in Sunday's semifinals.
In the quarterfinal, the teams remained on serve throughout the first set, which went to a tiebreaker. Seraphim and Mansouri won the tiebreaker 8-6 to take a one-set lead. The North Carolina pair used the only service break of the match to take the second set, 6-3, and force a 10-point superbreaker. The teams remained close throughout the superbreaker and both sides saved match points as it was tied 11-11. A Mansouri return gave the Deacs a match-point on Seraphim's serve at 12-11, which they took to win the match.
Earlier in the day, Mansouri's run in the NCAA Singles Championship came to an end with a 7-6(2), 6-3 quarterfinal loss to second-seeded Nuno Borges of Mississippi State. The first set remained on serve until Mansouri broke to serve for the opening set at 6-5. Borges broke back to force a tiebreaker, which he won 7-2 to take the first set. The second set was tied at 3-3 before Borges won the final three games to give the Bulldog the straight set win.
The NCAA Doubles Semifinals will be played Sunday afternoon at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.
NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships
Singles Results
R64 - #5 [3] Petros Chrysochos (WF) def. #64 Tyler Lu (Yale), 6-4, 6-3
R64 - #45 Borna Gojo (WF) def. #6 [4] Arthur Rinderknech (TAMU), 2-6, 6-4, 6-3
R64 - #13 [9-16] Skander Mansouri (WF) def. #39 Jose Salazar (ARK), 6-4, 6-4
R32 - #5 [3] Petros Chrysochos (WF) def. #37 Strong Kirchheimer (NU), 6-4, 6-2
R32 - #45 Borna Gojo (WF) def. #56 Nathan Ponwith (UGA), 6-3, 6-2
R32 - #13 [9-16] Skander Mansouri (WF) def. #65 David Biosca (ETSU), 6-4, 6-7(6), 7-6(1)
R16 - #13 [9-16] Skander Mansouri (WF) def. #22 Jolan Cailleau (TTU), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4
R16 - #47 Alex Ghilea (OU) def. #5 [3] Petros Chrysochos (WF), 7-6(5), 7-5
R16 - #69 Jack Findel-Hawkins (UNF) def. #45 Borna Gojo (WF), 6-3, 2-6, 6-0
QF - #4 [2] Nuno Borges (MSU) def. #13 [9-16] Skander Mansouri (WF) 7-6(2), 6-3
Doubles Results
R32 - #4 [4] Mansouri/Seraphim (WF) def. Pennington/Wallart (UK), 6-3, 6-2
R16 - #4 [4] Mansouri/Seraphim (WF) def. Braun/Foshey (MSU), 6-1, 7-5
QF - #4 [4] Mansouri/Seraphim (WF) def. #12 Blumberg/Kelly (UNC), 7-6(6), 3-6, 13-11
Players Mentioned
