Juniors Igor and Ivan Saveljic secured their second doubles title of the season for NC State men’s tennis on Sunday at the Wake Forest Invitational in Winston-Salem.
The Saveljic tandem defeated James Madison’s Theophile Lanthiez and Paul Mendoza, 6-3, in the doubles finale. The victory moved their record to 8-1 as the Pack takes a break heading into the spring season.
The duo started off their weekend on Friday, handling Davidson’s Artem Khrapko and Matthew Rose, 6-3. Also, the freshman doubles pair of Morgan Lohan and Tristan Smith squeaked by Davidson’s tandem of Shamael Chaundhry and David Hager, 7-6 (7), for their first collegiate doubles victory.
In singles competition, Igor Saveljic grinded for a three-set win over Mercer’s Sam Philip, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, then lost to Kentucky’s Jake Stefanik in the quarterfinal round. Ivan Saveljic mirrored his brother’s effort, winning in the first round but falling in the second round to Duke’s No. 2 seed Nick Stachowiak.
Smith notched another first to his collegiate career, beating UNC-Greensboro’s Oliver Palmer for his first singles victory for the Wolfpack; however, the freshman lost in the quarterfinal round to JMU’s Alvaro Arce in two sets.
After losing their first-round singles matches, junior Georgiy Malyshev and freshman Collin Shick bounced back to win their respective consolation quarterfinals in two sets. Malyshev and Shick teamed up in doubles but lost a heartbreaker to UNC-Asheville’s duo 7-6 (4).
On day two, the Saveljic twins advanced to the finals thanks to a dominating 6-2 performance against the Mercer pairing of Philip and Oliver Stuart.
The Lohan and Smith were outmatched by UNC-Charlotte’s No. 48 duo of Oriol Puig Forne and Alejandro Garcia Moreno, losing 6-3.
After losing on day one, Malyshev and Shick redeemed themselves with a resounding victory in the doubles back draw. The tandem vanquished Radford’s Robin Calais and Michiel Meekers 6-2.
In singles, Smith lost his first set 1-6, but fought back for the victory. He rallied to win the second and third sets 6-4 and 6-3, respectively, over Parks Schoen of Wofford. Smith was the only singles victory of the day as the Saveljics, Malyshev, Shick and Lohan were all on the losing end of their respective matches.
However, Sunday was full of bright spots for the Pack. Smith avenged his singles loss to Arce with his partner Lohan, defeating Arce and Damon Roberts in doubles, 6-4, for third place in the tournament.
Igor and Ivan Saveljic both won their singles matches over Indiana’s Afonzo Salgado and Bennett Crane, respectively. Though Malyshev and Shick would lose to the 49er duo of Sam Rice and Benjamin Wayand, Malyshev prevailed over Wayand in singles, 7-6 (5), 6-3.
Smith and Lohan defeated their final singles opponents, respectively. Shick was the lone Wolfpack player to end on the losing side in the final day of competition, falling to Diego Castano of Liberty University 6-4, 6-3.
The end of the Wake Forest Invitational marked the last outing for Wolfpack men’s tennis until January, when dual match play begins for NC State.
