Demon Deacons Drop ACC Semifinal to Virginia, Will Look Ahead to NCAA Tournament

CARY, N.C – The No. 1-ranked Wake Forest men's tennis team dropped its first match of the 2025 campaign as it fell to No. 6-ranked Virginia, 4-3, at Cary Tennis Park in the semifinals of the ACC Championships Saturday afternoon.

The Demon Deacons' (34-1) unbelievable unbeaten run to this point has set multiple records, including the first perfect regular season in program history as they became the first ACC team to accomplish the feat since the Cavaliers in 2013.

On Saturday, the Deacs clinched their 33rd doubles point in 35 matches as the Deacs took a 1-0 lead into singles. Despite dropping five first sets, Tony Bresky's squad nearly came all the way back and leveled the match at 3-3.

The reigning ACC Freshman of the Week, Charlie Robertson, has now won eight-straight matches to bring his record to 10-6 on the year as he defeated James Hopper (6-1, 6-2) on court four. He has not lost since Feb. 25 and holds a perfect 7-0 record against ACC opponents. Of note, Wake Forest hasn't dropped the fourth singles court since Feb. 25 against UNCW and holds an incredible 23-2 record overall in that slot.

With his 5-7, 7-6(7-2), 6-3 comeback win over No. 26 Dylan Dietrich in second singles, junior DK Suresh Ekambaram became the third Demon Deacon to reach 15 wins this campaign joining sophomore Luca Pow (26) and graduate student Ioannis Xilas (17). It marked Suresh's eighth ranked win of the spring which now leads the team.

The Demon Deacons are now 119-35 in singles this campaign and 68-17 in doubles.

How It Happened

20 minutes into doubles, Wake Forest held a 4-1 advantage on court one courtesy of Suresh and Pow, while courts two and three remained even at 2-2.
The duo on court one closed it out (6-3) over No. 30-ranked Dietrich/Dahlberg as the Deacs just needed one of the remaining two courts to take the 1-0 lead.
Dostanic and Robertson went up a break (5-4) on court two as the Deacs took full control of the doubles point.
- Court three remained deadlocked at 4-4.
On the fourth singles court, Robertson jumped out to a 4-0 lead over Hopper while the other five courts remained tight early on.
- The freshman was the first to take a set as he did so in dominant 6-1 fashion.
The Cavaliers took the first set on the other five courts.
The Demon Deacons doubled their advantage as Robertson quickly handled Hopper (6-1, 6-2) on court four.
- Virginia got one back on court five a few moments later to make it 2-1.
The Cavaliers took the lead with wins on courts one and three.
Suresh kept the Demon Deacons alive as he forced a third set in second singles after a clutch tiebreak win in the second.
- Not long after, Tacchi forced a third set of his own on court six.
Wake Forest evened the match at 3-3 as Suresh surged to a 5-7, 7-6(7-2), 6-3 win on court two, but the Deacs' ACC run came to an end as Virginia clinched the victory on court six.

Singles Results
1. No. 6 Rafael Jodar (UVA) def. No. 13 Stefan Dostanic (WFU) 6-3, 7-6(7-4)
2. No. 10 DK Suresh Ekambaram (WFU) def. No. 26 Dylan Dietrich (UVA) 5-7, 7-6(7-2), 6-3
3. Keegan Rice (UVA) def. No. 121 Ioannis Xilas (WFU) 6-0, 7-6 (8-6)
4. Charlie Robertson (WFU) def. James Hopper (UVA) 6-1, 6-2
5. Janjun Kim (UVA) def. Luca Pow (WFU) 6-2, 7-5
6. Mans Dahlberg (UVA) def. Luciano Tacchi (WFU) 6-2, 5-7, 6-4

Order of finish: 4, 5, 1, 3, 2, 6

Doubles Results
1. No. 58 Suresh/Pow (WFU) def. No. 30 Dietrich/Dahlberg (UVA) 6-3
2. No. 77 Dostanic/Robertson (WFU) def. No. 23 Hopper/Rice (UVA) 6-4
3. Xilas/Tacchi (WFU) vs. Jodar/Horovitz (UVA) 4-5, unfinished

Order of finish: 1, 2

From Coach Bresky
"Credit to Virginia, they played a great match. We got off to some bad starts in singles and it just wasn't our best out there to start the match. We fought really hard, clawed our way back into the match and gave ourselves a chance to win. I think it's a testament to our guys. Not to take anything away from them, they played really well and they have a great program, but I think for us it's an awesome learning experience.
It's been an unbelievable run to be undefeated this far into the season, but the goal was never to win every match as much as we would like to. This is a great motivator for the NCAA tournament. I know the boys will be hungrier and more dialed in for it. We're excited to go compete in the NCAA tournament and move on from there."

Next Up
Wake Forest will now await the NCAA selection show on April 28 at 5:30 p.m. on the NCAA website. The top-ranked Demon Deacons are still expected to be the No. 1 overall seed following one of the most dominant regular seasons in recent history.

Stay tuned to GoDeacs.com and the Wake Forest men's tennis social accounts for updates.

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Demon Deacons Drop ACC Semifinal to Virginia, Will Look Ahead to NCAA Tournament

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Team Stats

Players Mentioned

Stefan Dostanic

Luca Pow

Charlie Robertson

DK Suresh Ekambaram

Luciano Tacchi

Ioannis Xilas

Wake Forest Athletics