Kentucky’s Liam Draxl the first Wildcat to reach NCAA tennis Final Four since 2012

Liam Draxl is gaining momentum as he mows through the bracket at the NCAA Tennis Championships.

After needing three sets to win his first-, second- and third-round matches, the University of Kentucky sophomore swept to a straight-sets victory Wednesday to advance to the national semifinals.

Draxl, the tournament’s No. 1 seed, defeated No. 8 Gabriel Decamps of Central Florida, 7-6 (8-6), 6-1 for his fourth victory in four days in the 64-player men’s singles championships at Orlando, Fla.

Draxl moves on to Thursday’s Final Four where he will face No. 6 seed Sam Riffice of Florida at 2 p.m. Riffice, a junior, advanced Wednesday with a 6-3, 6-0 win over No. 4 Valentin Vacherot of Texas A&M.

“I’m pumped to be through to the Final Four,” Draxl said. “I’ve been having so much fun this week playing these great matches against great opponents. I’ve been really enjoying myself, so I’m just soaking it all in and fighting as hard as I can every match.”

Thursday’s other semifinal will pit No. 2 seed Daniel Rodrigues of South Carolina against unseeded Adrian Boitan of Baylor.

Rodrigues beat Aleksandar Kovacevic of Illinois, 6-1, 6-3 in Wednesday’s quarterfinals. Boitan defeated William Blumberg of North Carolina, 6-4, 6-1.

Draxl and Riffice did not face each other when Florida defeated Kentucky 5-2 in Gainesville last month. Draxl lost to Florida’s Duarte Vale at No. 1 singles that day while Riffice defeated Kentucky’s Gabriel Diallo at No. 2 singles.

The Gators went on to win the NCAA team championship, the school’s first ever in men’s tennis, on Sunday.

Draxl, a sophomore from Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, brings a 25-2 singles record this season into Thursday’s match. Riffice is 29-7.

Draxl is the first UK men’s singles player to reach the national semifinals since Eric Quigley played in the championship match in 2012.

▪ Kentucky’s run in the women’s national championships came to an end Tuesday.

Akvile Parazinskaite and Fiona Arrese, ranked No. 1 in the nation in doubles, were defeated 6-3, 6-2 by UCLA’s Elysia Bolton and Jada Hart in the NCAA Tournament’s round of 16 at Orlando.

The UK pair, both All-Southeastern Conference First Team selections, finished the season 21-5.

UCLA won the first three games in the opening set and Kentucky’s duo could not recover, unable to break the Bruins’ serve in either set.

NCAA track qualifying underway

Kentucky’s men’s and women’s track and field teams have 46 entries in this weekend’s NCAA East Preliminary Championships at Jacksonville, Fla.

Action was scheduled to begin Wednesday and conclude Saturday at the University of North Florida.

The top finishers from this weekend’s regional meets move on to the NCAA Championships June 9-12 in Eugene, Ore.

Men’s events were set for Wednesday and Friday with women’s events taking place Thursday and Saturday.

Kentucky’s men’s team is ranked No. 12 in the country and has 22 entries in the NCAA East meet. UK’s women are ranked No. 20 and have 24 entries.

Kentucky has one athlete seeded No. 1 entering the preliminaries in Keaton Daniel, who won the pole vault at the Southeastern Conference Championships.

No team scores will be recorded in the preliminaries. The goal is to advance as many individuals and relays to Eugene as possible.

Academic streak continues

UK’s scholarship athletes combined to produce a 3.259 grade-point average in the spring semester of 2021, the school announced Wednesday.

That marks 18 consecutive semesters UK Athletics has surpassed its goal of a 3.0 cumulative GPA.

”In what has been, almost certainly, the most challenging year to be a student-athlete, I’m proud of how the Wildcats have performed in the classroom,” Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said in a news release.

The Southeastern Conference champion women’s swimming and diving team led UK with a spring GPA of 3.794. The baseball team topped UK’s men’s sports, posting a 3.441.

Individually, 366 Wildcats achieved a GPA of 3.0 or higher, including 118 Cats who reached 4.0 for the semester.

This story was originally published May 26, 2021 at 3:31 PM.