Wake Forest's bid for a repeat NCAA men's tennis title comes up short

Top-seeded Wake Forest's drive for back-to-back NCAA men's tennis championships came to an end on Saturday afternoon.

The Demon Deacons had a 3-1 lead, but the Virginia Cavaliers won three straight singles matches to win 4-3 to advance to the final in Athens, Georgia.

The Demon Deacons (34-4) had beaten the Cavaliers once in the regular season and again for the ACC championship but couldn't do it for a third time.

Coach Tony Bresky of Wake Forest was trying to win his third national championship since 2018.

"It's incredibly difficult to see this group's season come to an end because of everything they accomplished together," Bresky said. "This team competed with tremendous heart all season long and represented Wake Forest at the highest level.

"We fought until the very end today, and while the result hurts, I couldn't be more proud of the culture, leadership and resilience this group showed throughout the year."

Second-seeded Texas advanced to the championship match with a 4-3 win over TCU in the other semifinal.

The Cavaliers and Longhorns will play for the NCAA championship on Sunday at 2 p.m. on ESPN Plus.

The Demon Deacons took a 1-0 lead thanks to two wins in doubles. The duo of DK Suresh and Andrew Delgado, the top-ranked doubles teams in the country, beat Mans Dahlberg and Dylan Dietrich 6-3. The doubles win by Suresh, the only senior starter, was the 100th of his career with the Demon Deacons.

Also winning doubles was Mees Rottgering and Kacper Szymkowiak, who beat Andres Santamarta and Jangun Kim 6-4.

The Demon Deacons went up 2-1 when Szymkowiak won in No. 6 singles, beating Dahlberg 6-4, 6-2.

Mees Rottgering of Wake Forest, the freshman of the year in the ACC, made it 3-1 when he beat Keegan Rice 6-4, 6-3 at No. 2 singles.

But the Cavaliers won the next three matches to storm past the Demon Deacons for the victory.

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.