Defending NCAA Champions

DEFENDING NCAA CHAMPIONS READY TO MAKE SOME NEW MEMORIES IN 2019

By Jim Buice

So just what can the Wake Forest men’s tennis team do for an encore after an incredible 2018 season where it was ranked No. 1 all year, won the ITA National Team Indoor Championship, the ACC regular season and tournament titles, and then captured the NCAA Championship on its own home courts?

“You know, you obviously think about last year and you remember some great memories and great moments,” said head coach Tony Bresky. “I think when you win as much as we did last year, I think it’s natural to have a little bit of a hangover and maybe not be quite as hungry. I think that’s kind of our job as coaches to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“Every year is a new year, so I’m sure the guys on our team right now want to make some new memories, and we’re excited to work with this group.”

The Deacons, again ranked No. 1 to start the new season, return senior Petros Chrysochos, the defending NCAA Men’s Singles champion, and junior Borna Gojo, who made it all the way to the title match before losing to his teammate – along with sophomore Bar Botzer, who clinched the deciding match in the thrilling victory over Ohio State in the team finals.

And although key leaders Skander Mansouri, who held the program’s record for singles and doubles wins after last year, and Christian Seraphim have graduated, Bresky has added an influx of new talent – including top freshmen Melios Efstathiou (the topranked junior out of Cyprus) and Siddhant Banthia (the top-ranked junior out of India). Both were top 50 in the world as juniors.

“Obviously, we’re a little younger,” Bresky said of the 2019 team. “We lost Christian and Skander from last year. They’ve been with us it seems like forever – great leaders, great guys, great teammates and great players. Those are big losses.

“At the same time, I think we recruited a couple of really strong freshmen, and added Melios and Tayte (Dupree) in the fall, and Sid and Matej (Cintl) joined us in the spring. The nice part of getting new blood in is they’re hungry and eager to prove themselves. Obviously, a couple of those guys – Melios and Sid – have already played a lot of tennis for us this spring, and they are fitting in really nicely.”

In addition, redshirt senior Julian Zlobinsky, redshirt junior Alan Gadjiev, and sophomores Yuval Solomon and Rrezart Cungu have been part of the playing rotation for the deep Deacons.

Wake Forest took a 12-2 record into the start of ACC play in late February and made another run to the finals of the ITA National Team Indoor Championship before meeting Ohio State again and this time losing in a tight match.

Bresky said he and the Deacons, who finished 31-2 last year and have won 30 or more matches three consecutive years, talk about breaking down the season into three parts – focusing first on the indoor season with the National Indoors, followed by the ACCs and the NCAAs after that.

“Really, the goals are pretty simple,” he said. “It’s trying to keep improving and get better every day, and hopefully the results will take care of themselves.”

For Chrysochos, the nation’s top-ranked player in collegiate tennis, his goal for 2019 is simple.

“I want to have the exact same year as last year,” he said. “We will definitely keep the traditions of last year and have the same schedule, the same routines and keep working hard.

“We definitely have high expectations as a team, and I know that being No. 1 puts a target on our back, but to be honest, there’s not much difference this year other than the location of the NCAAs in Orlando. We’re ready to compete.”

Certainly, there’s no way Chrysochos can exceed what he did last spring when he became the first player in program history to win the NCAA Singles Championship while helping lead the Deacons to its first team title.

Chrysochos became the first three-time singles All-American while compiling a record-breaking 44-4 singles record last year, including a 30-match unbeaten streak to end the season, This fall, he won the program’s first-ever singles title at the ITA National Fall Championships and became Wake Forest’s alltime leader in career singles victories on Feb. 16, passing former teammate Mansouri, with win No. 120.

Along with the on-the-court accomplishments, Chrysochos, a native of Cyprus who is majoring in communication and minoring in entrepreneurship, was named the 2018 ACC Men’s Tennis Scholar-Athlete after posting a 3.934 GPA in the spring.

“I’m going to see if there are any loopholes where he can get another year,” Bresky said with a laugh. “He’s just a great kid and a great ambassador for our university and our tennis program.

Petros Chrysochos

He helps in every way possible, and I think he’s going to be a very successful professional tennis player, and a very successful person post-tennis.”

Chrysochos said that turning pro will only be a priority once he graduates, and that he doesn’t want to rush finishing up at Wake Forest in what he calls “the best choice I’ve ever made in my life. If I had a choice I would gladly stay here and play another two to three years.”

And while reflecting on the unprecedented 2018 season, that magical last week in May first comes to mind.

“It’s one of the years I will remember forever,” Chrysochos said. “It’s hard to pinpoint a specific memory, but one thing that will stay with me will be the week that we played NCAAs here and we were with the whole team every single day and spending time together as teammates. The result obviously mattered a lot, but I think the whole process and the whole culture gave me some perspectives. It was an amazing experience.”

A couple of days after claiming the NCAA Championship, the team journeyed to the White House to meet with President Trump.

“President Trump was great,” Bresky said. “He met with us and took some pictures and gave us a tour of the White House. He had a speech on the lawn there, and he talked about our team a little bit.

“We got our NCAA rings (in January) when we played Arizona State. We got President Trump a ring and figure he should wear it on TV every now and then. It was a good reminder of what we actually accomplished.” And now it’s time to try to do it again. “We need to have the right motivation, the right perspective, and hopefully we’ll still be able to accomplish some great things again this year,” Bresky said.