Wake Forest University
Baylor
Deacs Down Baylor in Opening Round of ITA Indoor Championships
2/14/2020 10:49:00 PM | Men's Tennis
MADISON, WISC. - The sixth-ranked Demon Deacons used a dominant singles effort to down the 12th-ranked Baylor Bears in the opening round of the ITA Indoor Championships on Friday evening. The Deacons found redemption after suffering their lone loss of the season to No. 12 Baylor several weeks ago.
"I thought we really regrouped well after a very tight doubles point," head coach Tony Bresky said. "We had a strong team effort in singles. We learned a lot from our last loss and we've really had an excellent two weeks of preparation since then. Our team is excited to advance and looking forward to a new opportunity tomorrow against Ohio State."
The doubles point came down to a tiebreak on the second court that fell in favor of the Bears. Wake picked up the first win as Bar Botzer and Morgan Dill topped Finn Bass and Sebastian Nothhaft, 6-2. Baylor evened the score as No. 17 Constantin Frantzen and Sven Lah defeated Henri Squire and Eduardo Nava, 6-4. Taha Baadi and Melios Efstathiou battled against the 23rd-ranked duo, but came up just short as Baylor took a 1-0 lead in the match.
Despite losing the doubles point, Wake Forest (8-1) came out dominant in singles competition cruising to four straight-set victories to advance.
The singles lineup was slightly shuffled and Melios Efstathiou earned a quick 6-2, 6-2 victory in the four spot to get the deals on the board. The momentum remained with the Deacs for the rest of the match.
Freshman Taha Baadi found himself down a break in the first set, but rallied back to claim a 6-4 decision. He cruised to a 6-0 second set victory as the Deacons took a 2-1 advantage.
Senior Eduardo Nava built on Wake's lead finishing just minutes after Baadi with a 6-2, 6-2 win in the fifth spot over Ryan Dickerson putting the Deacs in full control to seal the victory.
No. 44 Bar Botzer defeated No. 67 Matias Soto 6-1 in the opening set. Soto put up a fight in the second frame, but Botzer clinched the victory with an ace to down Soto 7-5 in the top-100 matchup.
Henri Squire and Siddhant Banthia both dropped their first sets, but rallied to win the second sets to force a third before the match was clinched.
The Deacs will be back in action tomorrow night at 7:30 to face top-seeded Ohio State.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
3,1,2
#1 Singles Match
#2 Singles Match
#3 Singles Match
#4 Singles Match
#5 Singles Match
#6 Singles Match
Order of Finish:
4,3,5,1
Players Mentioned
