Opening conference play with a dominant win over the Yellow Jackets, No. 23 NC State men’s tennis blanked No. 43 Georgia Tech 4-0.

With solid bounce-back performances from the top of its roster, the Wolfpack (9-1, 1-0 ACC) secured wins on Courts 1, 3 and 4 to surge ahead of Georgia Tech (8-3, 0-1 ACC) after taking the doubles point.

On Court 1, No. 15 senior Martin Borisiouk gave up just one game en route to a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Georgia Tech’s Christophe Clement — a player that beat Borisiouk in straight sets last year. The rest of the squad was not quite to his level, but did more than enough to get the job done.

“We’ve got a very talented team that’s really dedicated to what they do,” said head coach Kyle Spencer. “Anybody, one through six, … they’re willing to fight for the Pack and willing to do the little things that it takes to be super successful.”

Reaching the 2025 NCAA singles semifinals in the fall, Borisiouk showed his ceiling is at an elite level. But the spring season has not gone to plan, starting the year 2-3 coming off an injury. With the dominant win, the Belarus native is hitting his stride once again.

“In tennis, everything is super close,” Borisiouk said. “Especially when you play college rules with deciding point on deuce, two points can decide so much. You just need to be there, fight and believe in yourself and what you’re doing on the court.”

Another European with incredible upside who did not get off to the best start is freshman Ainius Sabaliauskas. After starting the year 3-5, he put another tally in the win column, defeating Georgia Tech’s Jonathan Irwanto 6-4, 6-0 in straight sets to earn an important point for the Wolfpack.

“Great for Saba getting on board with a very good win,” Spencer said. “I thought he controlled the play from the beginning so that was awesome.”

Sabaliauskas has had several very close matches this season against NC State’s slate of non-conference opponents, but hasn’t closed the deal consistently. A Lithuanian addition to the squad, Sabaliauskas has had to adjust to a new style of tennis competing in NCAA play. After a commanding win versus Georgia Tech, Sabaliauskas seems to be finding his footing in college tennis. He will look to build on this win and create momentum as the Pack gears up for ACC play in the coming weeks.

Securing the final singles point to clinch the match on Court 4, redshirt sophomore Jules Leroux took the first set 6-3 and fought back to claim the second set 7-5 after going down a break to push the Pack to 1-0 in conference play.

Securing the doubles point, the combination of redshirt freshman Cody Benton and Sabaliauskas claimed a 6-2 victory, before sophomore William Manning and freshman Charlie Camus shut the door 6-4 to pave the way for a quick victory.

The Pack will face another solid squad as it hosts No. 28 Clemson (4-6) on Sunday, March 1 at noon, and will possibly play its first outdoor match, depending on the weather.

“[Clemson] qualified for the National Indoor Championships, I expect it to be a close match,” Spencer said. “The team that does the little things well will probably have the best outcome at the end.”