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Wake Forest Tennis 2023-2024: Men #7, Women #37

segedenissen said:
Looks like we have imploded. This stretch seems to be the worst that I can remember. I know it’s been tough matches but??? Beat OSU because they were hurt?
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If by OSU you mean Ohio State, then Wake lost to them. It was 3-4 and OSU is #1 in the country. Maybe you meant TN, who was #6 when we beat them?

Either way, super tough stretch for the men. They have lost their last 5 matches to power 5 teams, which hasn't happened in years. Now, those teams were ranked 1, 7, 8, and 17 in the country, and the only unranked team was Illinois who is usually very good and it was at Illinois. But, Wake often will win some of those matches. Hopefully we can re-group for a good ACC run. I think our goals likely remain winning the ACC regular season, winning the ACC tourney, and finishing top 16 so we can host first two rounds of the NCAAs.

The women are struggling too. They lost a super close match at SC yesterday on a controversial call in the third set of the #1 singles match, to drop the overall match 3-4. Brutal way to lose a match.
 
Rafi, do you have any details on the women's #1 controversial call?
 
Merlin said:
Rafi, do you have any details on the women's #1 controversial call?
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I was watching the livestream. There was no sound, but it appeared to me that Wake called a ball out, SC player seemed to agree, chair ump seemed to agree, but a line judge from the opposite end of the court overruled it and the chair ump went along with it. On match point, deciding match.
 
Tough, tough National Indoors for the guys. Went in seeded 9 and got absolutely throttled by a great Texas team, and then lower ranked Illinois and stanford as well. Only won 1 point the entire weekend, and that was at 1 vs Illinois when the match was more or less already clinched, and im not convinced Illinois #1 was healthy and not just thrown in there to lose and keep everyone down. We played well against Tennessee to win, and even in the losses to OSU and South Carolina, we were in the matches, so not sure what happened in Chicago. Im bummed that we haven't seemed to be able to reload following the '18 ship, and '19 finals performances. Hopefully they can regroup and finish in the top 3-4 in conference. I don't see us beating UVA or UNC though. Hopefully help is on the way.
 
A solid couple of weeks for the men and women. The men jumped from #25 to #14. I think they're a top 16 team, and probably a top 10 team when both Moroni and Karimov are playing well. The women had a great weekend and jumped from #29 to #19.
 
Men's tennis beat NCSU and plays Duke today in semis.
 
The men's and women's teams have had mediocre seasons, but both teams outplayed their seeds in the ACC tournament. The #9 seeded women beat #8 ND and then lost to #1 (and #1 in the country UNC). UNC was undefeated going into the championship today, but they lost to NC State (first ever women's tennis championship for NC State). The Wake women are ranked #33 and will be in the NCAA tournament.

The #6 seeded men beat #11 VT in the first round and then took down #3 NC State in the quarterfinals. The men then took on #2 seeded Duke - Wake won the doubles point, lost all 6 first sets in singles, but then rallied and fell just short, 3-4. Duke lost to UVA in the finals today. UVA is clearly the best team in the ACC this year and probably a top 5 team in the country. Duke is probably the second best team, but they're not far ahead of the cluster of UNC/Wake/State/FSU. Wake's #1, Melios Efstathiou has had an incredible season in which he has rarely lost and has worked his way from unranked to #5 in the country. The Wake men are ranked #20 and will be in the NCAA tournament.
 
Melios Efstathiou was named ACC player of the year! Only the second time in history that a Wake player has received that honor - the first was Noah Rubin. Melios had an absolutely incredible year, and is currently ranked #2 in the country.
 
Rafi said:
Melios Efstathiou was named ACC player of the year! Only the second time in history that a Wake player has received that honor - the first was Noah Rubin. Melios had an absolutely incredible year, and is currently ranked #2 in the country.
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Rafi, what's your take on what needs to happen to get Wake back to top 5/10? National Champs in 18, Runners-Up in 19, Covid year, then 21 and 22 were both so, so. Our record was good, but we weren't really a threat to win the conference or to finish top 5. This year has been Bresky's worst in a while. I'm not suggesting we do anything drastic, but just curious if you knew anything behind the scenes (close misses on big time players, anyone big coming next year, etc). We definitely got spoiled with Borna, Petros, and Skander manning the top of the lineup. I assume Karimov, while a great teammate, hasn't performed nearly to the expectations that we had coming in.
 
IMissRandolph said:
Rafi, what's your take on what needs to happen to get Wake back to top 5/10? National Champs in 18, Runners-Up in 19, Covid year, then 21 and 22 were both so, so. Our record was good, but we weren't really a threat to win the conference or to finish top 5. This year has been Bresky's worst in a while. I'm not suggesting we do anything drastic, but just curious if you knew anything behind the scenes (close misses on big time players, anyone big coming next year, etc). We definitely got spoiled with Borna, Petros, and Skander manning the top of the lineup. I assume Karimov, while a great teammate, hasn't performed nearly to the expectations that we had coming in.
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I agree with everything you wrote. I haven't been to nearly as many matches this year as previous years, so I'm a bit out of the loop. A couple of years ago someone in the know told me that Bresky hates UTR (a computer ranking system for tennis that came out about 5 years ago), because it easily identifies overseas talent, which was a pool that he recruited very well because of connections. Now, it's a lot easier for other programs to recruit overseas. In addition, I've been told that our tennis locker rooms are not nearly as nice as some we are competing against, so that can affect recruiting, too. With that said, a down year for men's tennis still has us top 20 in the country and the men's ACC player of the year.

Andrew Delgado is local and a top 5 player in the country, so he was a big pick-up. Luca Pow was also a good pick up, but I would guess Bresky has several other high caliber international players he's looking at for next year.
 
Rafi said:
I agree with everything you wrote. I haven't been to nearly as many matches this year as previous years, so I'm a bit out of the loop. A couple of years ago someone in the know told me that Bresky hates UTR (a computer ranking system for tennis that came out about 5 years ago), because it easily identifies overseas talent, which was a pool that he recruited very well because of connections. Now, it's a lot easier for other programs to recruit overseas. In addition, I've been told that our tennis locker rooms are not nearly as nice as some we are competing against, so that can affect recruiting, too. With that said, a down year for men's tennis still has us top 20 in the country and the men's ACC player of the year.

Andrew Delgado is local and a top 5 player in the country, so he was a big pick-up. Luca Pow was also a good pick up, but I would guess Bresky has several other high caliber international players he's looking at for next year.
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Yea, I've been following Luca Pow, and it looks like he will be a legit contributor. The others coming in next year, Carson Baker, Dylan CHang, and Emmett Potter, all appear to be solid players, but it is really hard for freshman, unless you are elite to contribute on top teams in our conference. Delgado is a '24, but i wonder if he would consider graduating in December and coming in mid-year. The cupboard is pretty bare after this year. Filo and Tacchi will be back and can play top 6. Barun as well, though he hasn't had a good year.
 
I think Holden Koons is coming in as a grad transfer from JMU and should be decent, but you're right, we'll need a couple more elite players.
 
Tennessee knocked out both teams in 2nd round. Women's team looked like they were in it pretty good. Losing two tight 1st set TBs hurt them. The men, on the other hand, got worked pretty good, especially at the top. Melios losing 1 and 1 is not something we see often at all. 2nd straight year that they don't make the sweet 16. Time to regroup a little bit for that program.
 
Per UTR, the Wake men have added a bunch of players. The top newcomers appear to be: Dhakshineswar Suresh from Georgia Gwinett, Franco Capalbo from Utah, Holden Koons from JMU, and Luca Pow from Great Britain There are a bunch of other newcomers that look to be second tier (see what I did there?).
 
Rafi said:
Per UTR, the Wake men have added a bunch of players. The top newcomers appear to be: Dhakshineswar Suresh from Georgia Gwinett, Franco Capalbo from Utah, Holden Koons from JMU, and Luca Pow from Great Britain There are a bunch of other newcomers that look to be second tier (see what I did there?).
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Suresh was an absolute menace as a freshman at GGC(for those who don't follow that level, they were undefeated in NAIA for 7 years up until February) and have won 9 straight national titles.

Was a hitting partner with some of my D1 friends when he got there and they were stunned he was playing NAIA
 
CamLemons said:
Suresh was an absolute menace as a freshman at GGC(for those who don't follow that level, they were undefeated in NAIA for 7 years up until February) and have won 9 straight national titles.

Was a hitting partner with some of my D1 friends when he got there and they were stunned he was playing NAIA
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He wins a ton of matches and has beaten some really good players (like the #1 at GT).
 
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