LEXINGTON, Ky. ? The University of Kentucky men?s tennis team continues its fall schedule on Saturday in Tulsa, Okla., the host city of this year?s All-American Tennis Championships. Four Wildcats will make the trek to the week-long tournament that features top men?s players from across the nation.
The Championships include five days of qualifying events. UK freshman Brad Cox will participate in the 128-player pre-qualifying tournament Saturday and Sunday. The pre-qualifier feeds into the 128-player and 64-doubles team qualifying tournaments Oct.1-3. Kentucky seniors Will Ward (No. 90) and Marcus Sundh will play in the singles qualifying tournament and then team up in the doubles qualifier for UK.
?The All-American Championships is considered to be the national hard courts of college tennis,? said UK men?s tennis head coach Dennis Emery. ?It will be (Cox?s) first exposure to the upper levels of the college game in the pre-qualifying. We are interested in how he responds to that. We have our two seniors, Ward and Sundh, in the qualifying. Each has a chance to make a little bit more of a name for themselves at the national level.?
The qualifier feeds into the 64-player, 32-doubles team main draws. Junior Bruno Agostinelli (No. 44) will compete in the main draw October 4-7. Agostinelli started his season impressively last week at the Southern Intercollegiates advancing to the round of 16.
?Bruno has made a big step up in his game this fall,? said Emery. ?Unfortunately, at Southern Intercollegiates he cramped and had to withdraw from play. He didn?t get a chance to really show all that he could do there. We?re hoping he is able to do that in Tulsa on a big stage.?
UK will host two tournaments at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex next month during its fall slate. The Fluitt Invitational takes place Oct. 13-15, followed the next week by the ITA Southeast Indoors Oct. 19-22.
Follow the action from the Championships all week long with results and recaps on ukathletics.com.