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Wake Forest
No. 14 Men’s Tennis downed by No. 6 Wake Forest, 4-2
02.20.2022 | Men's Tennis
The Longhorns captured the doubles point and got a singles win by sophomore Micah Braswell, but Wake Forest posted four singles victories for the overall match.
Seattle – No. 14 Texas Men's Tennis was downed by eighth-seeded No. 6 Wake Forest, 4-2, in the consolation bracket of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships on Sunday at the Nordstrom Tennis Center in Seattle.
The Longhorns captured the doubles point and got a singles win by sophomore No. 57 Micah Braswell at No. 1, but Wake Forest posted four singles victories at Nos. 3-6 to take the match. Trailing 3-2 overall, Texas had an opportunity to overcome the deficit down to the end with sophomore Eliot Spizzirri attempting to break at No. 4 to get his third set back on serve, but a final deuce point went to the Demon Deacons to clinch. The remaining match that went unfinished had freshman No. 62 Pierre-Yves Bailly just beginning a third set at No. 2.
Texas had opened with strong doubles play despite sophomore Cleeve Harper not being in the lineup as part of the Longhorns' usual duo at No. 1 with senior Richard Ciamarra. Instead, Bailly and sophomore Siem Woldeab moved up to No. 1, Braswell and junior Chih Chi Huang moved up to No. 2, and Ciamarra paired with Spizzirri at No. 3.
All three matches opened with the Longhorns on serve, and all three saw them push out to 3-0 leads with breaks in the second game. At No. 2, Braswell and Huang faced Eduardo Nava and Filippo Moroni. After the Demon Deacons got one game back on serve, the Longhorns used consecutive deuce points to close on a 3-0 run for the win. At No. 3, Spizzirri and Ciamarra squared off against the No. 19 duo of Ben Draper and Robert Maciag, who held on a deuce point and then broke to pull within 3-2, but the Longhorns broke back on a deuce point and held to extend back to 5-2. Wake Forest picked up one more game on serve, but Texas closed it out with a hold to clinch and take a 1-0 overall lead. In the remaining match, Bailly and Woldeab were pitted against the No. 20 pair of Siddhant Banthia and Jakob Schnaitter with the rest of their match staying on serve to a 5-2 lead for the Longhorns when play stopped.
Following Wake Forest singles wins at Nos. 6 and 3 that gave them a 2-1 lead, Braswell responded with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over No. 51 Melios Efstathiou. Down 3-1 after a deuce-point break by Efstathiou, Braswell answered the break to start a 4-0 run that included deuce-point wins at 3-3 and 5-3. The last three games of the set all went to deuce with each player holding for one to reach 6-4. In the second, Braswell grabbed a break in the opening game and consolidated for 2-0. Efstathiou got the break back at 3-3, but Braswell returned the favor on a deuce point to start a 3-0 run to his win, which evened the overall match at 2-2.
In the previous two singles results, sophomore Evin McDonald had been downed by Schnaitter, 6-1, 6-4, at No. 6, as had No. 75 Ciamarra by No. 71 Nava, 6-3, 6-3, at No. 3. Schnaitter opened on a 5-0 run before McDonald collected his win on serve. After Schnaitter claimed the set in the next game, McDonald won a deuce-point break in the fourth game of the second for a 3-1 lead. However, Schnaitter broke back and then broke again two games later on a deuce point of his own to go up, 4-3. McDonald put the set back on serve by answering that break in the next game, but Schnaitter broke again and then held for the win.
Nava used a deuce-point break to establish a 4-1 lead in the first against Ciamarra, and although Ciamarra responded with one of his own before holding to cut it to 4-3, Nava captured the last two games and the set. With Nava starting the second set on serve, the players held in the first three games, but then broke in the next three, leaving Nava up 4-2 until he snapped the streak of breaks and held for 5-2. That would be the first of three-straight holds to finish at 6-3.
With the overall match sitting at 2-2, Woldeab had rallied to push his match to a third set, but fell short in his comeback effort, 6-2, 5-7, 6-1, to No. 118 Taha Baadi at No. 5. Baadi secured the only two breaks of the first set with one in the opening game and the other to extend his lead to 5-2 before winning on serve at 6-2. Woldeab responded by taking a 4-1 lead in the second on the strength of a break at 3-1. Baadi broke back on a deuce point at 4-3 and then evened it on serve, while the next three games also stayed on serve until Woldeab broke on a deuce point for the set at 7-5. In the third, Baadi was able to break Woldeab's first two serves to establish a 4-0 lead that he maintained to the 6-1 final for a 3-2 Wake Forest lead, leaving the matches at Nos. 2 and 4 remaining.
At No. 4, Spizzirri put together a strong first set against No. 35 Moroni, but Moroni was able to recover in the 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 win. In the first, Spizzirri bookended 3-0 runs around one hold for Moroni, but it was Moroni who earned the first break in the second to go up 4-2. Spizzirri had a chance to answer it at deuce in the next game, but Moroni was able to hold for 5-2. Spizzirri got one break back at 5-4 before Moroni then won the set on serve to go to the third. There, seven of the nine games went to deuce with Moroni coming out on top in four of them. Spizzirri had gotten the first of them in the opening game, but Moroni immediately came back with one. The next three games stayed on serve, including deuce points for each player, but Moroni extended his lead to 4-2 with a break on another and then turned it into 5-2 on serve. Spizzirri won his last deuce point with hold in the next game and appeared to be on his way to a break to get back on serve up 15-40, but Moroni managed three-straight points to clinch the overall match.
At that point, the remaining match between Bailly and No. 99 Jurabek Karimov was just beginning its third set after Bailly won the first one, 6-2, and Karimov was able to hang on in the second, 7-5. In the first, Karimov won a deuce point to stay on serve at 2-2, but Bailly went on a 4-0 run from there, closing it on a deuce-point break. Karimov then opened the second with a break, and the set stayed on serve from there up to 5-4 when Bailly broke on a deuce point to keep the frame alive. However, Karimov answered with a deuce-point break of his own to regain the lead before holding for 7-5.
The Longhorns (7-5) will now have a week off before traveling to face No. 9 Georgia in Athens on Tuesday, March 1.
#6 Wake Forest 4, #14 Texas 2
Singles – Order of Finish (6,3,1,5,4)
1. #57 Micah Braswell (UT) def. #51 Melios Efstathiou (WF) 6-4, 6-3
2. #99 Jurabek Karimov (WF) vs. #62 Pierre-Yves Bailly (UT) 2-6, 7-5, unf.
3. #71 Eduardo Nava (WF) def. #75 Richard Ciamarra (UT) 6-3, 6-3
4. #35 Filippo Moroni (WF) def. Eliot Spizzirri (UT) 1-6, 6-4, 6-3
5. #118 Taha Baadi (WF) def. Siem Woldeab (UT) 6-2, 5-7, 6-1
6. Jakob Schnaitter (WF) def. Evin McDonald (UT) 6-1, 6-4
Doubles – Order of Finish (2,3)
1. #20 Siddhant Banthia/Jakob Schnaitter (WF) vs. Siem Woldeab/Pierre-Yves Bailly (UT) 2-5, unf.
2. Micah Braswell/Chih Chi Huang (UT) def. Eduardo Nava/Filippo Moroni (WF) 6-1
3. Eliot Spizzirri/Richard Ciamarra (UT) def. #19 Ben Draper/Robert Maciag (WF) 6-3
Players Mentioned
