Jan. 14, 2012
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 7 University of Kentucky men’s tennis team placed three singles players and two doubles tandems in the quarterfinals of the singles and doubles main draw to wrap up a successful second day at the Southeastern Conference Coaches’ Indoor Championships in Lexington, Ky., on Saturday. Play was spread out through two venues with the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex hosting the singles and doubles main draw and the Lexington Tennis Club hosting the singles and doubles consolation brackets.
“I thought that we had a great day today,” UK head coach Dennis Emery said. “Our guys were extremely competitive. The thing that surprised me today was how competitive the level of play on every court was this early in the season. For it to be the first week of the season, I think the level of play was tremendous. One thing that is obvious is that Ole Miss has a top-10 team in the country and they are back to having that caliber of a team this season.”
The day started with doubles action as sophomore Panav Jha and senior Eric Quigley continued their impressive tournament run by taking down the tournament’s overall No. 1 seed and fourth-ranked Florida duo of Nassim Slilam and Billy Federhofer 8-6. The Kentucky tandem will face seventh-seeded Ignacio Taboada and Hernus Pieters of Georgia after singles action is complete Sunday.
One other UK duo posted a doubles win Saturday when senior Alex Musialek and sophomore Alejandro Gomez defeated the tournament’s sixth seed and No. 53 Nathan Pasha and Sadio Doumbia of Georgia. Musialek/Gomez will face ChrisThiemann and Marcel Thiemann of Ole Miss in the quarterfinals Sunday after singles action is complete.
Kentucky’s play in singles Sunday involved a bit of history as Quigley posted his 141st career singles win to tie former UK great Jesse Witten for second all-time in career singles wins. The UK senior is now 141-43 in his career at Kentucky, sitting only three wins shy of tying Paul Varga’s school-record 144 career singles wins. Quigley earned the historic win after defeating Nick Jones of South Carolina in straight sets 6-1, 6-1.
“I think that it is fitting that they are tied and accomplished what they accomplished because they play very similar game styles,” Emery said. “We would have never dreamed that those records set in the 80s and 90s would one day be topped by a recent player since the NCAA cut down the number of events that players can play in now days. That is a significant point to this conversation, I believe.”
Two other Wildcats advanced to the quarterfinals with a win Saturday, including junior No. 36 Anthony Rossi and sophomore No. 95 Tom Jomby. Both Rossi and Jomby’s wins came in come-from-behind fashion. Rossi fell 6-4 in the first set to No. 87 Charlie Jones of Vanderbilt before regaining his composure and winning the following two sets 6-2, 6-1 to earn his spot in the round of eight.
Jomby’s match was probably one of the matches of the day as the three-set thriller involved two tiebreakers. The UK sophomore dropped the opening set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (4) to Gonzalez Austin of Vanderbilt before playing well in the second set to earn a 6-3 win. In the third set, both players went back and forth before Jomby came away with the tiebreak win 7-6 (6).
“Very impressed with how Tom Jomby played today,” Emery said. “The way that he competed and handled himself in some situations today really showed a lot of heart and growth for him from last year. He has just played really well the past two days and we hope it continues.”
All four quarterfinal matches Sunday will begin at 10 a.m. ET at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex. Rossi will face William Kallberg of Ole Miss, who took down the tournament’s overall No. 1 seed and the country’s third-ranked player Wil Spencer of Georgia on Saturday. Jomby’s quarterfinal match will come against Nik Scholtz of Ole Miss, who eliminated Alex Musialek’s tournament run Saturday with a 7-6 (2), 6-3 win. Quigley will square off against Jonas Lutjen of Ole Miss, who defeated Andrew Butz of Florida in the round of 16.
“Tough luck for Alex Musialek and it’s kind of the luck of the draw sometimes that he gets a guy that could end up as one of the best players in the country by the end of the season,” Emery said. “There are a lot of great matches tomorrow in the main draw quarterfinals and then the main draw semifinals. A lot of really good players are still in this field so it should be an exciting next two days.”
In consolation singles action, sophomore Ryuji Hirooka advanced to the consolation semifinals taking down Ben Barnette of South Carolina 6-1, 6-2 in the second round and Joe Dorn of Vanderbilt 6-3, 7-6 (2) in the quarterfinals. Hirooka will take on Michael Alford of Florida in the semifinals Sunday.
Play Sunday will begin at 8:30 a.m. with singles consolation semifinals, followed by the singles main draw quarterfinals at 10 a.m. The singles consolation finals will then be played at Noon, with the singles semifinals beginning at approximately 3 p.m. Doubles will be played after singles action is completed. All times are Eastern and subject to change.
Updated draws will be posted throughout the weekend at the SEC Coaches’ Indoor Tournament Central page on UKathletics.com. Scores will also be sent out through the Twitter account @UKMensTennis, while a live interactive blog will be available for fans online beginning Saturday afternoon.
For more information on the Kentucky men’s tennis team, follow “UKMensTennis” on Twitter or search “University of Kentucky Men’s Tennis Team” on Facebook.
