Wake Forest men, Georgia women, both top seeds, beat No. 2 seeds to clinch NCAA team titles
WACO, Texas (AP) — Wake Forest men and Georgia women, both the top seeds, defeated defending national champions and second seeds TCU and Texas A&M respectively, to capture the NCAA tennis championships at the Hurd Tennis Center on Sunday.
Wake Forest (40-1) defeated the Horned Frogs (27-4) 4-2 and also defeated them 4-3 for the ITA National Indoor Tennis Championship 4-3 in mid-February. The Demon Deacons won the 2018 title and lost in the 2019 final.
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Top-seeded Georgia (29-3) avenged a loss to second-seeded Texas A&M (30-4) in the 2024 championship with a dominant 4-0 win for its third NCAA championship in seven finals appearances. The Aggies, who won their first title with a 4-1 over the Bulldogs last spring, also pulled out the regular-season matchup 4-3 on April 13.
Wake Forest took the doubles point with Stefan Dostanic and Charlie Robertson beating Jack Pinnington and Cooper Woestendick 6-3 in the No. 2 matchup and Luca Pow and Luciano Tacchi won the No. 3 doubles over Duncan Chan and Albert Pedrico Kravtsov 6-2.
Dostanic took the No. 1 singles 6-3, 6-1 over Pinnington, and Pow won the No. 6 over Chan 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 to put the Demon Deacons on top 3-0 but quickly Pedrico Kravtsov topped Tacchi 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 for the first point for the Horned Frogs.
When Lui Maxted defeated Ioannis Xilas 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) in a long No. 3 singles match to pull TCU within 3-2, both the other matches were sitting at 3-3 in the third set.
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Both Dhakshineswar Suresh and Charlie Robertson of the Demon Deacons broke their TCU opponents for a 5-3 lead but it was Suresh who got to the finish first, Suresh won the No. 2 singles 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 over Pedro Vives, securing the NCAA title with a big serve. Robertson didn't have to finish his match at No. 4 singles against Cooper Woestendick.
Sofia Rojas clinched Georgia's title with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 win over Lexington Reed in the No. 6 singles but it was the marquee match in No. 1 singles that got the Bulldogs off to a good start.
Dasha Vidmanova, the second-ranked singles player, defeated No. 1 Mary Stoiana of Texas A&M 6-4, 6-4 before Anastasia Lopata recovered from a 6-0 loss in the first set to beat Nichole Khirin 0-6, 6-4, 6-2 in No. 2 singles.
Georgia started with the doubles point as Lopata and Guillermina Grant beat Reed and Daria Smetannikov 6-2 and Aysegui Mert and Jayden Mulberry topped Khirin and Lucciana Perez 7-5.
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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
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