Jan. 17, 2003
Sophomore Jesse Witten won two matches Friday to advance to the quarterfinals of the SEC Indoor Championships at the Racquet Club of the South in Norcross, Ga. Junior Karim Benmansour advanced to the round of 16 but could not get past Mississippi’s Alex Hartman. Juniors Matt Emery and Rahim Esmail, as well as sophomore Evan Austin, all fell to their nationally-ranked opponents in the round of 32.
In the round of 32, No 1 seed Witten took on Vanderbilt’s Zach Dailey. Witten’s 7-5, 6-4 victory advanced him to the round of 16 where he faced alphabetic seed Andy Colombo from Auburn. After taking the first set 6-4, Witten played Colombo to a tiebreaker where he dominated, not giving up a single point in the final game. Witten will face No. 7 seed and 24th ranked Alex Hartman from Mississippi in Saturday’s quarterfinals match.
Benmansour won his round-of-32 match with Arkansas’ Aleksey Bubis handily, 6-1, 6-2. Bubis was an alphabetic seed and is ranked 57th in the country. Benmansour moved on to face Hartman, where he fell, 6-2, 6-4.
In other round-of-32 matches, Esmail fell to alphabetic seed Olivier Levant from Florida, 6-3, 6-1. Emery couldn’t stay with 14th-ranked Chad Harris from Vanderbilt, the No. 5 seed, as he was defeated 6-3, 6-4. Austin won his first set against No. 8 seed Bo Hodge from Georgia but Hodge came back and took the match in three sets.
In UK’s only doubles match of the day, the tandem of Bemansour and Emery faced Florida’s Matt Behrmann and Troy Hahn, the top seed and 13th-ranked team. Kentucky’s other doubles matches will be played Saturday.
Complete results can be found at www.georgiadogs.com.
AGATE
Round of 32 Singles
#4 Jesse Witten (1) def. Zach Dailey (Vanderbilt) – 7-5, 6-4
#73 Karim Benmansour def. #57 Aleksey Bubis (Arkansas) – 6-1, 6-2
#68 Olivier Levant (Florida) def. #91 Rahim Esmail – 6-3, 6-1
#14 Chad Harris (Vanderbilt) (5) def. Matt Emery – 6-3, 6-4
#25 Bo Hodge (Georgia) (8) def. #100 Evan Austin – 5-7, 6-4, 6-4
Round of 16 Singles
#4 Jesse Witten (1) def. Andy Colombo (Auburn) – 6-4, 7-6(0)
#24 Alex Hartman (Mississippi) (7) def. #73 Karim Benmansour – 6-2, 6-4
Round of 32 Doubles
#13 Behrmann/Hahn (1) def. Benmansour/Emery – 8-6
Saturday’s Matches
Singles Quarterfinals
#4 Jesse Witten (1) vs. #24 Alex Hartman (Mississippi) (7)
Doubles Round of 32
Austin/Morgan vs. Janne Holmia/Trey Johnson (Florida)
Datlow/Hume vs. #43 Nicolas Boeker/Bo Hodge (Georgia)
#41 Esmail/Witten vs. Peter Richman/Paul White (LSU)
Singles Consolation
Elliott Datlow vs. Will Glenn (Georgia)
Alex Hume vs. Karim Alayli (Mississippi)
Tim Morgan vs. Straky Bobusic (Georgia)
-UK-
