May 28, 2010
ATHENS, Ga. – The University of Kentucky men’s tennis tandem of sophomore Eric Quigley (Pewee Valley, Ky.) and junior Brad Cox (Duluth, Ga.) earned All-America status Friday by advancing to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Doubles Championships after a 6-3, 6-4 upset win over the sixth-ranked pair of Dimitar Kutrovsky and Josh Zavala from Texas at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.
The win sends a UK doubles pair as far as the quarterfinals of the NCAA Doubles Championships for the first time since Richard Benson and Greg Van Emburgh reached the semifinals in 1987.
Quigley and Cox become UK’s first doubles All-Americans since Jesse Witten and Tigran Martirosyan achieved the feat in 2005.
The 22nd-ranked Quigley-Cox duo advances to play No. 19 Clay Donato and Stefan Hardy of North Carolina who upset No. 2 Robert Farah and Steve Johnson of Southern California, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 on Friday. Saturday’s match is set for 2:30 p.m. EST.
“It’s a great testament to the players to realize the importance of doubles play,” UK head coach Dennis Emery said. “They have put in a great deal of work and credit also goes to (Associate Head Coach) Cedric Kauffmann who has helped them with their development and shot selection. They have improved tremendously throughout this season.
“They gave their best performance of the year today. Brad took a big step forward and showed a lot of mental toughness and we needed that in order to get the win. We’re just really happy for Brad.”
Earlier Friday, Quigley lost a Sweet 16 singles matchup with Marcel Thiemann of Ole Miss, 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-2 in the NCAA Singles Championships. It marked only the second loss for Quigley in his previous 16 completed singles matches dating back to the start of April. Both setbacks came against Thiemann, who also earned a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Quigley at the Southeastern Conference Championships on April 23.
Despite the loss, Quigley earns All-America honors in singles play by meeting all three criteria. Quigley achieved a top-20 singles listing in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, was seeded among the 16 players in the singles tournament, and advanced as far as the Sweet 16 of the tournament.
Quigley becomes the youngest player in UK history to be named a singles and doubles All-American in the same year. He is one of five UK players to be named a singles and doubles All-American in the same season, joining Greg Van Emburgh (as a junior in 1987 and senior in 1988), Adam Milak (as a junior in 1989), Mahyar Goodarz (as a junior in 1993) and Witten (as a senior in 2005).
“Eric did a great job of bouncing back from his singles match earlier today to put in a solid effort in the doubles match,” Emery said. “He continues to progress into a complete player with a strong serve and good volleying skills.”
With the honors for Quigley and Cox, Kentucky has now seen 17 players earn All-America status 33 times during Emery’s 28-year tenure.
Please note: Thursday’s corrected score of Cox and Quigley’s first-round doubles victory over Philip Stephens and Ashley Watling of Texas was 6-1, 7-6 (7-2).
