Wildcats Close Out First Fall Event at UVA Masters

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Kentucky men’s tennis team wrapped up its first event of the fall season at the UVA Masters this week with two ranked wins in singles – six in total – and three doubles wins.
 
“I feel the guys learned a lot this weekend,” assistant coach Matt Gordon said. “With it being our first tournament of the fall, there was a bit of rust there and we had mixed results, but we improved as the weekend went on. I’m proud of Theo for how he competed in what was a very challenging first tournament of his college career. We will take the positives out of this and get back to work.”
 
Theo McDonald – a freshman from Bellevue, Washington – rebounded nicely from a tough first day with consecutive wins. He first came back in the a three-set match to defeat Notre Dame’s Tristian McCormick and then picked up his first ranked win shortly after, defeating No. 71 Igor Saveljic of North Carolina State to reach quarterfinals of the singles backdraw.
 
Following a testing first couple of days, Senior Enzo Wallart – who was seeded 13th and is ranked No. 76 in the ITA poll – saw his first ranked victory come to fruition after a commanding 7-5, 6-3 win against No. 43 Strahinja Rakic of Mississippi State.  
 
Kento Yamado grabbed two singles wins in the event and reached the Round of 16 of the backdraw. The Kobe, Japan, native defeated two Cavaliers in Jerome Romualdez (6-1, 6-2) and Ammar Alhaqbani (6-2, 7-6).
 
Junior Cesar Bourgois added a singles win to his credit and was able to make it to the Round of 16 in the backdraw after defeating UVA’s Matthew Lord (6-2, 7-6 (4)).
 
UK’s doubles pairing of Wallart and McDonald fell to the second-seeded team from Florida, but the duo bounced back by claiming a 6-3 win over Tulane’s Ewan Moore and Tyler Schick and a dominant 6-0 victory against Spencer Bozsik and Alhaqbani of Virginia. The Wildcats picked up another doubles win when Yamada and Bourgois teamed up and emerged on top of another UVA pairing of Aswin Lizen and William Woodall.
 
UK will be back in action from Oct. 1-8 at the ITA All-American in Tulsa, Oklahoma.