No. 9 Wake Forest Drops a Heartbreaker to No. 4 North Carolina in ACC Semifinals

ROME, Ga. – Through two rain delays and a mid-match move to the indoor facility, the No. 9 Wake Forest men's tennis team lost a heartbreaker to in-state rival No. 4 North Carolina, 4-3, in the ACC Championships Semifinals on Saturday at the Rome Tennis Center.

Coming out of a close doubles point loss, Siddhant Banthia, Melios Efstathiou and Taha Baadi responded with wins on their respective courts to spring the Deacs into clinching position, 3-2. A line of thunderstorms made way, forcing the match to be moved into the Rome Indoor Facility with two matches left.

No. 4 North Carolina would eventually pull out the two wins in tiebreakers.

The loss is the first for Wake Forest (28-6, 11-1 ACC) in the semifinals since 2017. It snaps the Demon Deacons' six match win streak over the Tar Heels.

QUOTABLE
"Great college match, credit to North Carolina they came out clutch in the end. Obviously, we had our chances throughout some adversity in the day. I thought our doubles represented the whole match. We were unlucky at one doubles with some net cords at wrong moments. But they played well at the end and we loss the point. We talked about not letting that affect us in singles and it didn't.

We came out in singles and won five first sets with the only loss coming from Taha Baadi and he won his match in the end. In Rrezart Cungu's match the guy hits a net cord serve so that describes the kind of match we were in. We had our moments to win but overall I'm super proud of our guys. Our guys are a very motivated group and I think we will learn a lot more this loss than our wins. This will be a big motivation for us going into NCAAs." -Coach Bresky

HOW IT HAPPENED

Wake Forest quickly started doubles play with a victory from second doubles duo of Siddhant Banthia and Matthew Thomson (6-2). The Tar Heels responded with a win on court three sending the doubles point to the number one doubles.
No. 11 Eduardo Nava and Henri Squire fought hard but eventually fell 7-6 (6).
In singles play, Wake Forest made quick work winning five of the six first sets to jump start the comeback.
The Demon Deacons evened things up with a straight set win from Siddhant Banthia over Kigerat No. 6, 6-2, 7-5.
Melios Efstathiou immediately gave Wake Forest the lead with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Simon Soendergaard on court five.
UNC evened things up due to an Eduardo Nava default.
Sophomore Taha Baadi—with the score even at 2-2—downed Brian Cernoch, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 at No. 3 to put Wake Forest up 3-2 and on the brink of clinching match point.
After the match was sent indoors due to rain, the Tar Heels proceeded to take the match in third set tiebreakers.

UP NEXT
Wake Forest will now await the NCAA Selection Show on May 3 at 6:30 p.m. ET to find out their seed and location for the NCAA Tournament. It was already named a pre-approved potential site to host the first and second rounds at the Wake Forest Tennis Center.

RESULTS
Singles competition
#25 Rinky Hijikata (NC) def. #10 Henri Squire (WF) 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6)
#65 Benjamin Sigouin (NC) def. #31 Eduardo Nava (WF) 3-6, 6-4, 99-0
#121 Taha Baadi (WF) def. #59 Brian Cernoch (NC) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3
#59 Josh Peck (NC) def. Rrezart Cungu (WF) 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (10-8)
Melios Efstathiou (WF) def. Simon Soendergaard (NC) 6-3, 6-3
Siddhant Banthia (WF) def. #112 Mac Kiger (NC) 6-2, 7-5

Doubles competition
#79 Simon Soendergaard/Mac Kiger (NC) def. #11 Eduardo Nava/Henri Squire (WF) 7-6 (8-6)
Matthew Thomson/Siddhant Banthia (WF) def. #79 Benjamin Sigouin/Rinky Hijikata (NC) 6-3
Brian Cernoch/Peter Murphy (NC) def. Melios Efstathiou/Taha Baadi (WF) 6-4

Match Notes:
North Carolina 18-2; National ranking #4
Wake Forest 28-6; National ranking #9
Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (5,6,2,1,3,4)

No. 9 Wake Forest Drops a Heartbreaker to No. 4 North Carolina in ACC Semifinals

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Team Stats

Players Mentioned

Taha Baadi

Siddhant Banthia

Rrezart Cungu

Melios Efstathiou

Eduardo Nava

Henri Squire

Matthew Thomson