By Dylan Vazzano, TTU Sports Information

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – A stellar doubles showing by the Tennessee Tech tennis team highlighted the purple and gold's final event of the fall in the Wake Forest Invitational over the weekend in Winston-Salem.  

The Tech tandem of Alex Alvarez and Lucas Bitzer captured the C1 Flight championship, serving as the only duo in the flight's field of seven to string together a perfect 3-0 showing. The pair of Golden Eagle rookies first knocked off Cleveland State's Andrew Zimcosky and Ty Rotchild with a 6-2 decision in the quarterfinals, before rattling off a 6-4 win against Furman's Alex Han and John Rado in the semis to advance to Sunday's title bout. With the C1 doubles crown at stake, Alvarez and Bitzer secured a 6-2 triumph over Davidson's Charlie Ratliff and Luca Lovrich to take the title.

Davids Spaks and Paulo Ramos Martin joined Alvarez and Bitzer as Tech duos to secure a win throughout the tournament after taking down UNC Greensboro's Christopher Johns and Tymofy Khrystyuk in the A1 West semifinals. Spaks and Ramos Martin dropped their first tangle of the tourney with a 6-2 defeat to Wake Forest's Harry Thursfield and Matthew Thomson in the East quarterfinals, but bounced back in the West part of the flight to take down Johns and Khrystyuk to advance to the West final. The Tech pair was ultimately upended 6-4 by Duke's Teddy Truwit and Alexander Visser in the championship bout to end their tandem run.

Spaks continued his success during singles action, representing the only Golden Eagle to pick up a pair of victories en route to an appearance in the D3 Flight title tilt. The Liepaja, Latvia native took down UNC Greensboro's John Gabelic 7-6, 6-2 in the quarterfinals, before toppling Cleveland State's Andrew Zimcosky 6-4, 6-2 in the semifinals. In the championship contest, Spaks was tripped 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 by UNC Asheville's Tark Erlewein.

Paulo Ramos Martin accompanied Spaks in the singles win column behind three-set 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 nod over Davidson's Sebastian Carpio in the C3 Flight singles quarterfinals. Ramos Martin would then fall 6-4, 7-5 to Radford's Robert Hagen in the semifinals, but came back to pick up a win against Campbell's Pol Otin in the C3 3-4 Playoff.

Murilo Burckhardt fell in his first singles matchup with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat to Radford's Guilherme Severin in the C4 Flight quarterfinals. The Golden Eagle rookie out of Telemaco Borba, Brazil was then taken down 6-2, 7-5 to Davidson's Max Kachkarov in the West semifinals.

Lucas Bitzer was unable to secure a singles triumph in his three battles in the B2 Flight with a 6-1, 6-3 defeat to UNC Charlotte's Coy Simon in the quarterfinals, a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 loss to James Madison's Youssef Sadek in the West quarterfinals and a 6-1, 6-4 defeat to James Madison's Esteve Agusti in the South final.

Alex Alvarez proved to be busy over the weekend with four solo matchups, but was upended in all four duels in the B1 Flight. The Barcelona, Spain product dropped a 6-3, 6-2 decision to Richmond's Sebastian Miano in the quarterfinals, before he was tripped up 7-6, 6-2 by Furman's Leonardo Dal Boni in the West quarterfinals. Alvarez would go on to fall 6-1, 6-1 by James Madison's Julian Lozano in the South semifinals and would then end his singles stay in Winston-Salem with a 7-5, 6-3 loss to Virginia's Douglas Yaffa in the Southeast final.  

Photo by Thomas Corhern