No. 1 Wake Forest Ends A&T's 11-Match Winning Streak

Ian Pedersen (left) and Said Akbarov (right) both led their respective second sets in singles play before their matches were called because Wake Forest had already clinched the overall win.

Men's Tennis | 3/16/2025 10:29:00 PM

WINSTON-SALEM, NC – Well. It took the No. 1 team in the nation to do it, but the North Carolina A&T men's tennis team is no longer undefeated.

The Aggies suffered their first loss of the season at the hands of the top-ranked men's tennis team in the International Tennis Association (ITA) poll, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, 4-0, at the Wake Forest Tennis Center on Sunday.

The Aggies dropped to 11-1, while the Deacs improved to 24-0.

It was a clincher's match, where the match or doubles point ends once a team clinches enough points to determine the winner because the Deacs were playing the second match of a doubleheader after beating 32nd-ranked Florida State earlier in the day.

That became the case in doubles. Wake won at No. 3 doubles 6-3 behind the partnership of Dylan Chang and Harry Thursfield as they defeated sophomore Kaua Santos and junior Mathieu Dussaubat . Wake Forest clinched the doubles point when Ioannis Xilas and Franco Capalbo beat sophomore Lucas Coupo-Moison and freshman Jindrich Brill , 6-2, at No. 2 doubles.

Sophomore Said Akbarov and senior Ian Pedersen were in a competitive 5-5 match with Wake's No. 1 doubles team of DK Suresh Ekambaram and Martin Mazev when the match stopped because the Deacs had already clinched the doubles point.

Wake took a 2-0 lead once singles play started when Wake's Luca Pow won No. 2 singles by retirement, which usually indicates an injury or illness by the opponent, which in this case was Coupo-Moison. No reason for the retirement was stated. Wake increased its lead at No. 6 singles as Cornelius Shalmi defeated Dussaubat 6-1, 6-2.

Sunday's clincher came at No. 3 singles. Joaquin Guilleme defeated Santos 6-2, 6-3 to give the Deacs the necessary points to win the match. The other matches still playing when Guilleme clinched for Wake included Aggies senior Ian Pedersen at the No. 1 position.

Pedersen lost his first set to Xilas but led 5-3 in the second before the match ended. Akbarov also held a second-set lead at No. 4 singles. He lost the first set to Thursfield 6-4, before taking a 4-3 advantage in the second. Something similar brewed at No. 5 singles, where Brill lost the first set to Chang. He did not have the lead in the second set, but it was still close as he only trailed 4-3 in the second.

A&T recently added another ITA-ranked team to its schedule. The Aggies will face the Georgia Bulldogs at 5 p.m., Saturday, March 29 in Athens, Ga. The Bulldogs are currently ranked 30th in the nation. A&T's next match is Monday at 1 p.m., against Queens University of Charlotte at Howard Levine Tennis Center in Charlotte, NC.

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