JMU Claims Four Flight Titles at Wake Forest Invitational

Friday, November 1

Winston-Salem, N.C.

James Madison University

Wake Forest Invitational

JMU Claims Four Flight Titles at Wake Forest Invitational

11/3/2024 2:30:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – James Madison men's tennis turned in arguably its strongest fall weekend in recent years, as it captured four flight championships at the Wake Forest Invitational (Nov. 1-3) at the Wake Forest Tennis Center.

The Dukes won a pair of doubles flights, followed by two singles flights to round of the weekend. All six competing Dukes won either a doubles title or singles crown in a solid field, which featured athletes from host Wake Forest, Clemson, Virginia, Auburn and Duke.

JMU turned in a combined 21-11 record on the weekend, which included a 14-9 mark in singles play and 7-2 ledger in doubles.

The Dukes first claimed a pair of doubles titles on Saturday, followed by two more singles crowns on Sunday to cap the event.

The tandem of Zach Fleishman and Francisco Sinopoli went 3-0 in Flight B1, earning a pair of wins over power-four teams to win the flight. Also taking home a doubles title were Markus Giersiepen and Harrison Lee, who went 3-0 in Flight C.

On the singles side, Esteve Agusti won Flight B with a perfect 4-0 record, which included a pair of three-set wins with the final being in comeback fashion over Clemson's Max Damm. In Flight C1, Aurelien Schmitt captured all four bouts in straight sets, including his final victory over College of Charleston's Jacob Smith.

QUOTING COACH STEVE SECORD
"It was a solid weekend for the Dukes in a highly-competitive event. The guys keep steadily improving. We're looking forward to one more weekend of competition before the focus switches to the spring season."

HOW IT HAPPENED
Doubles Play

In flight B1, Fleishman and Sinopoli survived an opening-round match with Clemson's Stewart Aronson and Kaetan Mehta, defeating them 7-5 in a tiebreak to win the match at 7-6 (5).
After cruising past North Carolina A&T's Mathieu Dussaubat and Kaua Santos, 6-1, they held off Wake Forest's Jamieson Nathan and Nikola Parichkov, 7-5, in the final.
Over in flight C, Giersiepen and Lee also won a tiebreak, at 7-3, against Furman's Theophile Joly and John Rado to earn the 7-6 (3) win in the quarterfinals. After taking down Georgia Southern's Alex Amacher and Alex Suk, 6-3, in the semis, the duo turned away College of Charleston's Evan Pugh and Devin Ruhotina, 7-5, to win the flight.
Finally in flight A3, after taking losses to teams from Auburn and Duke, Agusti and Schmitt rounded out doubles with a 6-0 win in a consolation match with Furman's Sam Fancutt and Nicholas Snyder.

Singles Play

Agusti opened singles play in flight B with victories over Virginia's Ty Switzer (6-2, 7-5) and NC A&T's Lucas Coupu-Moison (6-4, 6-0) before facing a pair of three-set bouts. In the semifinals, Agusti took the opening set before holding off NC Central's Narash Bharathy (6-3, 2-6, 6-3).
In the final, Agusti dropped the first set before coming back and holding off Damm of Clemson in three (3-6, 6-3, 7-5).
Schmitt won all eight sets and faced just two tiebreaks to earn the flight C1 title. His closest bout came in the opening match, as he fended off Furman's Snyder (7-6 (5), 7-5). After bearing Cleveland State's Maxime Aremon (6-4, 6-2) in the quarters, he won a shortened match with Tennessee Tech's Lucas Bitzer (6-0, 2-0, won by injury retirement).
In the title match, Schmitt finished the weekend with a solid victory over Charleston's Jacob Smit (6-3, 7-6 (1)).
Also in C1, Fleishman reached the quarterfinals with an opening-round win over Charlotte's Lance Chochrane (7-6 (3), 6-3).
Over in flight C2, Sinopoli won a pair of matches, including the opening match with Charlotte's Danny Yassine (6-3, 6-1), while Giersiepen won a consolation against UNCG's William Elmers (6-3, 7-6 (4)).
Finally, Lee went 2-1 in flight D, winnin a pair of consolations over Charleston's Pugh (6-3, 6-1) and UNCG's Alan Trbonja (6-1, 6-1).

UP NEXT
JMU is back in action next weekend, as the majority of the roster will travel to Annapolis, Md., for the Navy Gold Invite (Nov. 8-10), while the doubles team of Zach Fleishman and Francisco Sinopoli will represent the Sun Belt Conference at the ITA Conference Masters Championships (Nov. 7-10) in Rome, Ga.