As summer vacations go, Wake Forest doubles team is having a blast at the Winston-Salem Open (2024)

Luca Pow and DK Suresh’s summer vacation is continuing to be an excellent adventure.

The doubles team, who will start classes next week at Wake Forest, are making their wild card entry into the Winston-Salem Open look like a stroke of genius for tournament director Jeff Ryan.

On Wednesday Pow and Suresh won their second straight match to cruise into Friday’s semifinals playing with house money. They are also gaining confidence with each and every point they win.

“To be honest, the fans and the homecourt advantage has pushed us through these two matches,” said Pow, a rising sophom*ore from England.

In Wednesday’s match, which was played on Court 4, had a large contingent of Wake Forest fans making it a definitive advantage for Pow and Suresh. It’s the smallest court in the complex for the tournament but Pow said it’s the same court he practiced for doubles all year long at Wake Forest.

"Oh yeah, when I saw the schedule, I was like 'this will work,'" Pow said.

Pow and Suresh beat Gonzalo Escobar and Aleksandr Nedovyesov 6-1, 4-6, 10-8 as they prospered in the super tiebreaker showing incredible teamwork.

Suresh’s final serve on match point secured the win for the 10-8 score in the tiebreaker.

“He’s a special guy and without him I wouldn’t be here,” Suresh said about his teammate and new doubles partner.

The two never played doubles at Wake Forest but started practicing for the tournament a few days ago, then played to their strengths once the tournament started. Suresh is right-handed and Pow is left-handed and their court vision and knowing each other’s games has been pivotal.

“We are already really a tight team and (Coach Tony Bresky) does a good job of making us a team so this will just make us better,” Pow said about the Wake Forest team as he looked ahead to this season.

Suresh, a junior from India, said classes start in a few days, but the tournament will be over by Saturday.

“The story is still evolving,” Suresh said about what he’s going to tell classmates and friends when Wake Forest is back in session.

The closeness of Court 4 made it easy for fans to see up close how well they are playing. Bresky, who had a front-row seat to the matches, says he’s not surprised the two have excelled.

It’s the first time in the history of the 14-year tournament that current Wake Forest players won a match in the main draw of either singles or doubles. And now Pow and Suresh have won two straight matches.

“They are just playing some really unbelievable tennis,” Bresky said. “They both want to be top singles players, obviously, but they’ve found some rhythm here and it’s great to see our fans come out and it’s great to see them live to see another day in the tournament.”

Bresky also has a former player still in doubles in 29-year-old Skander Mansouri, who teamed with Nichael Barientos to upset top-seed Neal Skupski and Michael Venus 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 to advance.

“I saw what they did and that’s great,” Mansouri said about the Wake Forest duo moving on. “I don’t think we want to play them at this point.”

Mansouri and Barientos would play the Wake Forest duo is if both teams won on Friday in the semifinals.

Bresky said Pow and Suresh have practiced some this week with Mansouri, who played on Wake Forest’s NCAA championship team in 2018 as a senior.

“We know (Mansouri) pretty well, so Wake Forest tennis is here to stay,” Suresh said.

Pow said that it’s obvious having an ATP 250 tournament at Wake Forest is a big deal in recruiting.

“I don’t know of any other university that has something like this, so I certainly noticed when I was deciding to come here,” Pow said.

Pow and Suresh also got wild card entries into singles, but didn’t make to the main draw. But in doubles they are pulling all the right strings.

“DK and I just want to have fun out there,” Pow said.