Singles Bracket I NCAA Championships I Pervolarakis Recaps UP Career (Video) I Aaron Gross Preview (Video)

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Two of the 64 participants in the 2018 NCAA Men's Tennis Singles Championships call the island country of Cyprus home and they will meet in the first round of the tournament. The NCAA singles bracket was released on Tuesday and Portland senior Michail Pervolorakis will face No. 4-ranked Petros Chrysochos of Wake Forest at 5 p.m. (ET)/2 p.m. (PT) on Wednesday at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex.

Pervolarakis and Chrysochos are good friends and grew up playing tennis together. Pervolarakis is from the city of Limassol, while Chrysochos is from about 50 miles away in Larnaca.

"Petros is obviously one of the best players in college tennis," Portland head coach Aaron Gross said. "He and Mike are very good friends, but the tennis world is small, and friends play each other all the time so these guys are used to that kind of a thing. I said it before we got here, and I will say it again, I believe Mike has the capability of beating anyone in the draw. At this level it really comes down to keeping your nerve and executing at a few key times. It doesn't matter what you did in the past or what you might do in the future. It really is those few present moments during the course of a match that make the difference on that particular day."

Pervolarakis became the second Portland player in program history to earn a spot in the NCAA Singles Championships. He is ranked No. 57 nationally in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) singles rankings. Pervolarakis garnered his second consecutive West Coast Conference Player of the Year honor to become the first non-Pepperdine competitor in the league's history to win the honor twice.

He enters the tournament with a 25-6 overall singles record and has performed well against top competition with four wins against ranked opponents.

Chrysochos will be the highest ranked opponent Pervolarakis has faced this season. He and the top-ranked Demon Deacons will play for the NCAA team championship on Tuesday night on their home court against No. 4 Ohio State.

Chrysochos has won 23 consecutive singles matches entering tonight's team championship. He is 37-4 overall, 26-1 in dual matches and was a perfect 10-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference matches. Chrysochos has defeated 23 ranked opponents overall this season.
 
A three-time NCAA All-American in singles, Chrysochos reached the NCAA quarterfinals as a freshman and won the prestigious ITA All-American Championships as a sophomore.

The winner will move to face the winner of on Yuya Ito (Texas) and William Bushamuka (Kentucky) in the Round of 32 on Thursday. The singles and doubles championship continually daily with the championship matches scheduled for Monday, May 28. Fans can follow the action and get updated brackets, real-time scoring and live video coverage of the tournament by visiting the tournament home page at WakeForestSports.com.