Wake Forest Blanks Blue Devils in ACC Quarterfinals, 4-0

ROME, Ga. – A dominant day across the board, led the No. 9 Wake Forest men's tennis team to a, 4-0, shutout of No. 37 Duke on Friday to move the Deacs to the ACC Championship semifinals at Rome Tennis Center.

Friday's triumph also cemented the Demon Deacons into the semifinals for the sixth consecutive time, making it the 16th appearance overall. The Deacs are 10-5 in the ACC semifinals.

The win is Wake Forest's (28-5, 11-1 ACC) second victory over Duke (12-9, 6-5 ACC) this season and 20th win in the all-time series.

Since the start of the 2012-13 season, Wake Forest has a reached the ACC Championship title match five out of the last six years. This includes winning back-to-back ACC titles in 2018 and 2019 with the 2020 ACC tournament canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic.

QUOTABLE:
"I thought the guys did a solid job in doubles. One and three doubles did a great job battling and getting the job done. In singles, we had pretty good momentum going early as Henri Squire was very good at one. Taha Baadi was in control the whole match and I Duke fought very hard to get themselves back in the match. We were in trouble on five and six but our guys fought hard. It was a pretty fair result and I think the boys are happy with how they played. We are North Carolina tomorrow and we are always looking forward to that one." - Coach Chris Easton

HOW IT HAPPENED

In doubles play, the No. 11 duo of senior Eduardo Nava and sophomore Henri Squire ripped past Duke's No. 20 team of Garrett Johns and Sean Sculley, 6-2, on court one.
Wake Forest's third doubles of Taha Baadi and Melios Efstathiou clinched the doubles point after taking a break and then holding for the 6-4 victory over Andrew Dale and Luca Keist.
In singles action, No. 10 Squire kept the momentum going the Demon Deacons way as he cruised by No. 69 Johns, 6-1, 6-3, on court one to put Wake Forest up, 2-0.
On court three, No. 121 Baadi, knocked off Andrew Zhang, 6-4, 6-2, in his 12th victory of the season, extending the Deacs lead to, 3-0.
With the match nearly clinched, the machine Rrezart Cungu battled through a dropped second set, before dominating in the final set to walk away with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 victory on court four to clinch match point at 4-0 with three matches left unfinished.

UP NEXT
Wake Forest will play in its 16th ACC semifinals Saturday at the Rome Tennis Center against the No. 4 North Carolina after they survived an upset bid from Virginia Tech, 4-3, on Friday. First serve is set for 2 p.m. depending on incoming weather.

RESULTS
#10 Henri Squire (WF) def. #69 Garrett Johns (DU) 6-1, 6-3
#31 Eduardo Nava (WF) vs. Sean Sculley (DU) 6-4, 3-6, 2-1, unfinished
#121 Taha Baadi (WF) def. Andrew Zhang (DU) 6-4, 6-2
Rrezart Cungu (WF) def. #120 Edu Guell (DU) 6-4, 1-6, 6-3
Siddhant Banthia (WF) vs. Luca Keist (DU) 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 3-0, unfinished
Filippo Moroni (WF) vs. Andrew Dale (DU) 5-7, 5-6, unfinished

Doubles competition
#11 Eduardo Nava/Henri Squire (WF) def. #20 Garrett Johns/Sean Sculley (DU) 6-2
Matthew Thomson/Siddhant Banthia (WF) vs. Michael Heller/Andrew Zhang (DU) 3-5, unfinished
Melios Efstathiou/Taha Baadi (WF) def. Luca Keist/Andrew Dale (DU) 6-4

Match Notes:
Duke 12-10; National ranking #37
Wake Forest 28-5; National ranking #9
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (1,3,4)

Wake Forest Blanks Blue Devils in ACC Quarterfinals, 4-0

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Team Stats

Players Mentioned

Taha Baadi

Siddhant Banthia

Rrezart Cungu

Melios Efstathiou

Filippo Moroni

Eduardo Nava

Henri Squire

Matthew Thomson