No. 2 Men's Tennis Grinds Out 4-3 Win at No. 12 Wake Forest

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – On a windy day in North Carolina, No. 2 Baylor men’s tennis (15-2) grinded out a 4-3 victory over No. 12 Wake Forest (12-4) at the Wake Forest Tennis Center Thursday afternoon.

BU handed the Demon Deacons just their third home loss since the 2016-2017 season and picked up its 15th win of the season. The 15-2 mark to open the year is the Bears’ best since 2015.

Kicking off the afternoon, BU felt punched in the mouth as Adrian Boitan/Nick Stachowiak lost in a 6-2 decision to Taha Baadi/Melios Efstathiou on court three to begin doubles action. However, Charlie Broom/Matias Soto outlasted Siddhant Banthia/Matthew Thomson 7-5 on court two, and No. 10-ranked Constantin Frantzen/Sven Lah did the same against No. 18 Eduardo Nava/Henry Squire on court one to give the Bears the opening point.

Baylor carried that momentum into singles, claiming four first sets on each of the top four courts, but the tides turned and Wake Forest found its way back in the match. No. 56 Matias Soto was the first off the court, winning 6-0, 6-3 over Nava to put BU ahead 2-0, but the Deacs claimed the next point as Banthia defeated Finn Bass on six, 6-4, 6-3.

As the three other matches drew close to third sets, No. 74 Stachowiak picked up another BU point with a 6-4, 7-5 victory in the fourth spot against Efstathiou, but once again Wake Forest climbed back with No. 107 Baadi’s three-set win over No. 43 Lah, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

With a 3-2 lead, it was No. 103 Broom who sealed it for Baylor on court five, coming back against No. 92 Rrezart Cungu 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 to clinch the match. No. 46 Adrian Boitan played it out with Squire on court one, but fell 6-3, 3-6, 5-7 to create the final tally.

HIGHLIGHTS
• Baylor improved to 3-2 all-time against Wake Forest after going 1-1 against the Demon Deacons in 2020.
• BU now owns a four-match winning streak and has won nine of its last 10 outings.

• Baylor handed Wake Forest just its third home loss since 2016-2017.
• The Bears are now 13-4 in the doubles point this season.
• BU is 12-1 in matches when winning the doubles point.
• The Bears are now a combined 72-11 in singles play and 35-13 in doubles action during the dual season.
• With his 98th-career doubles win, Constantin Frantzen inches closer to Benjamin Becker’s school record of 104.

• No. 103 Charlie Broom’s defeat of No. 92 Rrezart Cungu was Cungu’s first loss of the season.

STAT OF THE MATCH

3 – Baylor handed Wake Forest just its third home loss since 2016-2017.

TOP QUOTES
Interim head coach Michael Woodson

On today’s match…

“Anytime you can go in to a place like Wake Forest and get a win, you’ve got to feel really good about it. It’s a really well-coached team, lots of experience, so for us to come away with a win in those conditions was really impressive. We got punched in the mouth early in doubles, but we were able to turn that and credit to No. 1 and No. 2 doubles to hang in there and play their best tennis at the end. That was a huge momentum swing and we rode that well into singles. It felt like we got a little bit complacent with some leads, it got hard on a lot of courts and we needed every bit of each guy on the team. Our tennis in the big moments was good. To sit down after that match with a W was just a great feeling.”

WHAT’S NEXT

The Bears (15-2) return home for a Sunday matinee against No. 21 Arizona State (10-1) at 3 p.m. CT at the Hurd Tennis Center.

For the latest news on the Baylor men’s tennis team all season long, follow their official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorMTennis.