Deacs Rally for 4-2 Victory in ITA Kickoff Opener

Friday, January 24

Winston-Salem, N.C.

5 PM

Wake Forest University

East Tennessee State University

1/24/2020 8:54:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Grace Bolin, Wake Athletic Communications

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – No. 7 Wake Forest men's tennis prevailed through a gritty match to defeat the ETSU Buccaneers 4-2 on Friday night at the Wake Forest Tennis Center. The Deacons improve to 3-0 on the season and will face Kentucky on Saturday in the ITA Kickoff Weekend championship match for a spot at the ITA National Indoor Championships in February.

"We were missing Bar (Botzer) today and he is arguably our best doubles player and he is our top singles player, so that is never easy especially against a team like ETSU," head coach Tony Bresky said. "I thought we played pretty good doubles. We only got broken once on three courts and had match points on one and two doubles, but it's always going to be close and is going to come down to a couple points here and there. Singles it was one of those things where we rolled in three positions, those were really quick matches and then it was a while before we could get that fourth point and that's just college tennis."

Sophomore Siddhant Banthia and freshman Taha Baadi paired up in Baadi's first collegiate match and quickly put the Deacs in a good spot, cruising to a 6-1 win on court three in doubles. ETSU came firing back on courts one and two, taking both matches in a tiebreak to give the Buccaneers a 1-0 match advantage.

Eduardo Nava got singles rolling, picking up a 6-2, 6-1 victory on court four to knot the match, 1-1. Freshman Henri Squire had another strong outing for the Deacs, downing Juan Lugo 6-1, 6-2 in the third spot as Wake took a 2-1 lead.

Melios Efstathiou cruised to an easy 6-0 first set victory, but Frazier Rengifo fought back in the second set. Efstathiou was able to pull out the 6-4 victory handing Wake a 3-1 advantage, one win away from clinching the match.

After falling behind early, Baadi bounced back to grab a 7-5 first set win on the top court, however, his opponent Yusuf Khamis won the final two sets 6-3, 6-4 putting the Buccaneers within one, 3-2. Cungu and Banthia were also locked into three setters on courts five and six.

Cungu dropped the first set 6-4 but rallied to pick up back-to-back 7-5 victories after facing a 5-1 deficit in the third set to clinch the win for the Demon Deacons.

"We always talk about our guys being tough, resilient and doing their best at all times and that's just what Rrezi does. He was down 5-1 in the third and could have easily went away but he was really tough and got it done. It was great for s and we will be excited to go tomorrow."

FULL RESULTS
Singles
1. Yusuf Khamis (ETSU) def. Taha Baadi (WAKE) 5-7, 6-3, 6-4
2. Melios Efstathiou (WAKE) def. Frazier Rengifo (ETSU) 6-0, 6-4
3. Henri Squire (WAKE) def. Juan Lugo (ETSU) 6-1, 6-2
4. Eduardo Nava (WAKE) def. Thiago Pernas (ETSU) 6-2, 6-1
5. #56 Rrezart Cungu (WAKE) def. Dimitri Badra (ETSU) 4-6, 7-5, 7-5
6. #67 Siddhant Banthia (WAKE) vs. Miguel Este (ETSU) 5-7, 7-5, 5-2, unfinished

Doubles
1. Juan Lugo/Yusuf Khamis (ETSU) def. Eduardo Nava/Henri Squire (WAKE) 7-6 (10-8)
2. Chris Mikrovas/Frazier Rengifo (ETSU) def. Morgan Dill/Melios Efstathiou (WAKE) 7-6 (8-6)
3. Siddhant Banthia/Taha Baadi (WAKE) def. Miguel Este/Thiago Pernas (ETSU) 6-1