January 20, 1999
Year in and year out, the University of Kentucky men’s tennis team ranksnear the top of the national rankings. The Wildcats face the same highexpectations and standard of excellence in 1999.
The toughest obstacle for UK will be replacing its three seniors, CedricKauffmann, Dan Spaner and Marcus Fluitt. Kauffmann had arguably the mostsuccessful season ever in the history of UK men’s tennis. Ranked in the topten throughout the season and finishing at No. 9, Kauffmann played at No. 1singles and No. 2 doubles with Spaner. Fluitt, meanwhile, was an integralpart of UK’s doubles line-up.
“It will be difficult to replace someone capable of the results Cedriccompiled last season,” head coach Dennis Emery said. “Not only was he ourtop singles player, he was also a natural leader.”
One way UK looks to help fill Kauffmann’s shoes is by relying on its highlytouted recruiting class. Newcomers Tomas Smid, Gustav Pousette, RevenStephens, Claude Grady, and Johan Grunditz are already proving that theywill be reliable players this season, as Smid, Pousette and Grunditz allwon fall season tournament singles titles.
“We signed a great recruiting class, one of the best ever here at UK,”Emery said. “I anticipate three of the five freshmen playing in the top sixof our singles lineup. I think they have a lot of talent.”Even more crucial to UK’s high hopes for 1999 are returning players CarlosDrada, Edo Bawono and Johan Hesoun.
Drada, UK’s top returning singles player, looks to return to action aftermissing the last six matches of 1998 due to an eye injury suffered duringpractice.
“Drada has really picked up his game during the 1998 fall season,” Emerysaid. “He had an injury-plagued sophomore season, and he has become a lotmore mature. He is one of the guys who has to step up and play at the topposition.”
Drada had a great fall season, beating the nation’s No. 1-ranked player inHarvard’s James Blake and winning the singles title the South Carolina FallInvitational. He was also ranked No. 27 in the fall ITA rankings.
“Beating Blake was a major breakthrough for Carlos,” Emery said. “He hashad one of the best fall seasons of anyone I have coached here.”
Drada also figures heavily into UK’s doubles lineup, playing at No. 1 withBawono, while Hesoun will be one of UK’s top six singles players.
“Seniors Patrik Johansson and Ariel Gaitan have also picked up theirgames,” Emery said. “I expect them to do well, also.”With an exciting mix of talented newcomers and proven veterans, UK hopes toimprove on last season’s 16-12 record.”The strength of this team is our depth,” Emery said. “This is the deepestour team has been since 1997-98, and that year we finished second in theSEC and sixth in the country.”
Emery said that the depth of the 1999 Wildcats sets them apart from recentteams.”The last couple of years, we’ve been good at the top of our lineup, butweaker at the bottom,” he said. “This year, we’re looking forward to beingdeeper and more competitive at four positions.”
One area Emery is concerned with is UK’s doubles play.”That area is suspect, but we have pretty good doubles talent coming back,”he said. “We will need to concentrate and focus on that area.”UK finished the 1998 fall season with four singles titles and impressiveshowings at each tournament the Cats participated in, including two eventsheld at UKthe first-ever Charles Fluitt Intercollegiate Classic, named forthe father of former Wildcat Marcus Fluitt, and the Dr. H. H. Downing FallInvitational.
“We won consistently at all the fall tournaments,” Emery said. “We had fourdifferent players win four different events. I’m pleased that the guys arewinning a lot of matches and competing hard.”
As always, UK faces a competitive schedule, including dual matches withHarvard, South Alabama, Clemson, Duke, and Illinois, and those are just thenon-conference opponents. The SEC features top-ranked teams each season,and 1999 is no different. UK travels to Tennessee, South Carolina, LSU,Vanderbilt and Georgia. Alabama, Florida, Auburn, Ole Miss and Arkansaswill all face the Cats at UK’s Hilary J. Boone Tennis Center.
“The SEC is the best conference in the country,” Emery said. “Weconsistently have 10 teams ranked in the top 25, and this conference alwaysmaintains a level of excellence.”Despite that fact, Emery says many SEC foes face the same problem UK doesthis seasonreplacing players from last year.”It will be an interesting year, because even though we lost some topplayers, so did six other schools,” he said. “From that standpoint, we allhave to worry about how we are going to replace those players.”
Emery said he looks for this team to improve on last year’s finish, andhopes to achieve a No. 1 regional seed in the NCAA Tournament. “We feel like we’re better than we were last year, mostly because of ourdepth,” he said. “We’re optimistic, but we’ve got to be able to win matchesat home. If we can take care of our home matches throughout the year, we’llput ourselves in a good position for a top 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament.”With such a high talent level in 1999, this team could prove Emery’s wordstrue by achieving its No. 1 goal this seasona No. 1 seed at the NCAATournament.
