Kentucky men’s tennis holds court in quest for NCAA Tournament success
For the second straight year, an impressive regular season has given the Kentucky men’s tennis team the right to host NCAA Tournament matches in Lexington, and the Cats look poised to go far in the bracket.
The Wildcats — the No. 8 overall seed — swept aside DePaul, 4-0, and Northwestern, 4-2, on Friday and Saturday at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex.
The results move Kentucky into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014.
Against DePaul, Kentucky dropped just one set from those that were played to completion.
Against Northwestern, UK used the doubles point and three victories in singles matches to win the battle of the Wildcats.
Kentucky will host No. 9 overall seed Wake Forest at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Sweet 16.
The winner will advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament, which will be held at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex in Champaign, Illinois, later this month.
Kentucky, now with a 23-7 overall record this season, is 11-2 on its home court.
This stellar home record — which has already paid dividends in the postseason — was a big reason why Kentucky went 10-2 in Southeastern Conference matches. The Cats also reached the final match of the SEC Tournament before losing to Florida (the No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament).
Kentucky, which entered the NCAA Tournament as the No. 9 ranked team in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings and as the No. 7 ranked team in the United States Tennis Association rankings, won the doubles point against both DePaul and Northwestern.
The doubles pairings of Liam Draxl and Alexandre LeBlanc and Gabriel Diallo and Joshua Lapadat both won convincingly, 6-0 and 6-1, against DePaul.
In the second-round match against Northwestern, the Draxl-LeBlanc pairing won 6-4, and the Diallo-Lapadat pairing prevailed 6-3.
Singles wins against DePaul came from Lapadat (6-2, 6-2), Diallo (6-4, 6-1) and team captain Millen Hurrion (6-3, 6-3).
Singles victories against Northwestern again came from the trio of Lapadat (6-1, 6-1), Diallo (4-6, 6-2, 6-4) and Hurrion (6-2, 2-6, 6-4).
This is now the deepest NCAA Tournament run for the UK men’s tennis program since 2014, when the Wildcats also reached the Sweet 16 before losing to Oklahoma.
Diallo and Draxl in singles tourney
Once the team portion of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament concludes, and regardless of how UK performs, the Cats will be sending both Diallo and Draxl to the NCAA Men’s Tennis Singles Tournament.
Diallo and Draxl were both at-large selections to that tournament, which will be held May 23-28 at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex in Champaign, Illinois.
Both Diallo and Draxl played in the singles tournament last year, with Diallo reaching the Sweet 16 while Draxl, then the No. 1 seed, became the first UK player to reach Final Four since 2012.
Both players were All-SEC First Team selections this season.
Draxl is the No. 4 overall seed in the singles tournament.
This story was originally published May 6, 2022 at 5:36 PM.
