WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Wake Forest men’s tennis team opened the 2025 season with a pair of 7-0 victories over Tennessee Tech and ETSU Sunday inside the Wake Forest Tennis Center.Order of finish: 2, 1Tacchi and Capalbo made it four Demon Deacons to start the 2025 campaign with a 2-0 singles record (full results below).Six […]
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Wake Forest men’s tennis team opened the 2025 season with a pair of 7-0 victories over Tennessee Tech and ETSU Sunday inside the Wake Forest Tennis Center.Order of finish: 2, 1Tacchi and Capalbo made it four Demon Deacons to start the 2025 campaign with a 2-0 singles record (full results below).Six players made their dual-match debuts for Wake Forest, with Xilas, Harry Thursfield, Dylan Chang, Joaquin Guilleme, Nikola Parichkov and Mazev all taking the court on Sunday.Xilas, who played both matches in the first singles position, was perfect on the day with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Tennessee Tech’s Alex Alvarex and a 6-4, 6-2 win over ETSU’s Peter Kalocsai. Of note, both of his wins were match clinches.Doubles Results (ETSU)
1. No. 4 Pow/Tacchi (WFU) def. Kalocsai/Garcia-Ripoll (ETSU) 6-4
2. Capalbo/Xilas (WFU) def. Lamas/Listo (ETSU) 6-3
3. Shalmi/Mazev (WFU) vs. Sim/Cressoni (ETSU) 5-4, unfinishedDoubles Results (Tennessee Tech)
1. No. 4 Pow/Tacchi (WFU) def. Dao/Bitzer (TTU) 6-2
2. Capalbo/Mazev (WFU) def. Alvarez/Burckhardt (TTU) 6-2
3. Xilas/Parichkov (WFU) vs. Spaks/Kuczynski (TTU) 3-3, unfinishedGraduate student Franco Capalbo also notched two doubles victories on the day, one with Martin Mazev (6-2 against Tennessee Tech) and another with Ioannis Xilas (6-3 vs. ETSU).Of note, the Deacs improved to 8-1 all-time against the Golden Eagles and 29-2 against the Buccaneers.Follow the Deacs:
GoDeacs.com | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- Wake Forest took the early advantage in doubles, as Capalbo/Mazev broke the Tennessee Tech pair in second doubles early on and the other two courts remained on-serve.
- The Demon Deacons claimed the doubles point with simultaneous victories on courts one and two as No. 4 Tacchi/Pow and Capalbo/Mazev both picked up 6-2 wins.
- In singles, Luca Pow picked up where he left off last season, as he won the first five games of his match and eventually won the first set, 6-1, on court two.
- Xilas (6-1) and Tacchi (6-3) quickly followed as they took the first sets on courts one and three, respectively.
- On court four, Capalbo got his season started with a 6-1 first-set victory in fourth doubles.
- Thursfield took court three due to a medical retirement on court five as Wake Forest went up 2-0.
- His match was stopped at 3-3.
- Chang was the fifth Demon Deacon to take the first set as he took it on court six, 6-3.
- Wake Forest continued to roll into the second sets with the Deacs on courts 1-4 all jumping out to commanding leads.
- Pow put the Deacs up 3-0 as he picked up his 20th-consecutive victory in dual play and defeated Murilo Burckhardt, 6-1, 6-2 on court two.
- In his first dual match as a Demon Deacon, No. 115 Xilas clinched the match for Wake Forest with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Alex Alvarez in first singles.
- The remaining three matches were played out.
- In fourth singles, Capalbo got his season off on the right foot with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Lucas Bitzer.
- Tacchi (6-3, 6-2) and Chang (6-3, 6-2) finished out the sweep with wins on courts three and six, respectively.
Singles Results (Tennessee Tech)
1. No. 115 Ioannis Xilas (WFU) def. Alex Alvarez (TTU) 6-1, 6-1
2. Luca Pow (WFU) def. Murilo Burckhardt (TTU) 6-1, 6-2
3. Luciano Tacchi (WFU) def. Oliver Dao (TTU) 6-3, 6-2
4. Franco Capalbo (WFU) def. Lucas Bitzer (TTU) 6-1, 6-1
5. Harry Thursfield (WFU) def. Davids Spaks (TTU) 3-3, retirement
6. Dylan Chang (WFU) def. Darek Kuczynski (TTU) 6-3, 6-2In singles, sophomore standout Luca Pow extended his dual-match winning-streak to 21-consecutive matches dating back to last season as he took down Murilo Burckhardt (TTU) 6-1, 6-2 and Pedro Cressoni (ETSU) 6-0, 5-7, 1-0 (10-5).In doubles, the Demon Deacons (2-0, 0-0 ACC) took courts one and two in both matches on Sunday, highlighted by sophomore Luca Pow and graduate student Luciano Tacchi going 2-0 together as they kept the momentum going after being named doubles All-Americans in the fall.From Coach Bresky
“Great start to the season. The boys were ready, prepared and excited. It’s always fun playing at home in front of our fans. I thought we did a really good job and we’re still missing a few guys in the lineup. We’re excited to get two wins to start the season and now we’re off to play Baylor on Friday and that should be a really tough match.” – Head coach Tony Bresky
Next Up
The Demon Deacons will return to action Friday, Jan. 17, when they travel to face Baylor in Waco, Texas at 1 p.m.From Coach Bresky
“Great start to the season. The boys were ready, prepared and excited. It’s always fun playing at home in front of our fans. I thought we did a really good job and we’re still missing a few guys in the lineup. We’re excited to get two wins to start the season and now we’re off to play Baylor on Friday and that should be a really tough match.” – Head coach Tony Bresky
Next Up
The Demon Deacons will return to action Friday, Jan. 17, when they travel to face Baylor in Waco, Texas at 1 p.m.Order of finish: 5, 2, 1, 4, 3, 6 Order of finish: 2, 1
