SEATTLE – In a wild match that came down to a third-set tiebreaker, No. 1 Wake Forest outlasted No. 5 Stanford, 4-3, in the semifinals of the ITA National Indoor Championships Sunday afternoon at Washington's Nordstrom Tennis Center.
Stanford (8-1) fought back to even the score on two separate occasions, the latter making it 3-3, to set up a decisive final match at No. 1 singles.
Senior Tom Fawcett and Wake Forest's Borna Gojo were locked in a tight battle at the No. 1 spot. After Fawcett took the first set (6-3), Gojo fought back to take the second set in a tiebreaker (7-6(5)). The decisive third match would go into a tiebreaker as well, with Bojo coming out on top (7-6(5)) to seal the win for the Demon Deacons (8-0).
Stanford fell behind by two points early as the Cardinal dropped the doubles point for the first time all season and freshman Axel Geller (8-1) fell at the No. 2 singles spot for the first time in dual play this year.
The Cardinal quickly erased its deficit as senior David Wilczynski earned a 6-4 6-2 win over No. 62 Christian Seraphim at No. 5 and graduate student Eric Fomba posted a 7-5, 7-5 win at No. 4.
The Demon Deacons got a win at No. 6 to pull back ahead, 4-3, but junior Sameer Kumar tied it back up for the Cardinal moments later with a wild 6-7 (10), 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 22 Skander Mansouri at No. 3 to set up the dramatic finish.
Sunday was Stanford's seventh consecutive match against a top-25 opponent and fifth match in six contests against a top-10 foe.
No. 1 Wake Forest, No. 5 Stanford 3
DOUBLES
1) No. 55 Michael Genender/Sameer Kumar (STAN) vs. Christian Seraphim/Ian Dempster (WFU) 4-2 (unfinished)
2) Borna Gojo/Skander Mansouri (WFU) d. No. 32 Tom Fawcett/Axel Geller (STAN) 6-3
3) Petros Chrysochos/Bar Botzer (WFU) d. Timothy Sah/David Wilczynski (STAN) 6-0
Order of finish: 3,2,-
SINGLES
1) No. 100 Borna Gojo (WFU) d. No. 33 Tom Fawcett (STAN) 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5)
2) No. 6 Petros Chrysochos (WFU) d. No. 75 Axel Geller (STAN) 6-4, 6-3
3) Sameer Kumar (STAN) d. No. 22 Skander Mansouri (WFU) 6-7 (10), 6-3, 6-4
4) Eric Fomba (STAN) d. No. 112 Bar Botzer (WFU) 7-5, 7-5
5) No. 117 David Wilczynski (STAN) d. No. 62 Christian Seraphim (WFU) 6-4, 6-2
6) Julian Zlobinsky (WFU) d. William Genesen (STAN) 7-5, 3-6, 6-3
Order of Finish: 2,5,4,6,3, 1