Sept. 22, 2002

In their first action of the fall 2002 semester, three Kentucky men’s tennis players travelled to Murfreesboro, Tenn., to compete in the Middle Tennessee Fall Invitational Tournament. Junior Rahim Esmail had the best weekend for the Wildcats, advancing to the semifinals of Flight A1 Singles.

Esmail, ranked fourth in his draw, received a bye in the first round of the tournament before defeating Evansville’s Clemens Klein in the second round (7-5, 6-0). In the third round, the Coquitlan, B.C., native beat Vanderbilt sophomore Chad Brown on Saturday(6-2, 7-6). On Sunday, he fell in the semis to Gilles Legardere of Ouachita Baptist (6-4, 3-6, 10-6), the eventual winner of Flight A1.

Junior Matt Emery also competed in Flight A1 Singles. After losing in the first round to Johnny Berrido of Louisville, Emery advanced to the finals of the Flight A1 Consolation draw, defeating Lipscomb’s Danny Norman (6-3, 6-4), Jacksonville State’s Arturo Nieto (7-5, 6-1) and Memphis’ Ben Stapp (2-6, 6-3, 10-2) before losing to Rodrigo Minnuzzo of Auburn (6-1, 7-6).

Esmail and Emery also teamed up in the Flight One Doubles draw, but lost their first round match to Paul Ciorascu and Catalin Gard of Ole Miss (8-2).

Freshman Alex Hume competed in Flight B Singles, losing his first round match to Arkansas-Little Rock’s Sebastian Faulk (6-2, 6-3). In Flight B Consolation play, Hume defeated UT-Martin’s Oltion Mollaymeri (6-0, 6-2) before losing to Christian Rybertt of Jacksonville State (3-6, 6-5, 10-8). Rybertt went on to win that draw.

The Wildcats host the Charles Fluitt Invitational Tournament next weekend, Sept. 27-29, at the Hilary J. Boone Varsity Tennis Complex in Lexington, Ky.