April 10, 2002
The 16th-ranked University of Kentucky men’s tennis team improved to 16-8 on the season with victories over Bowling Green State University and Eastern Kentucky University on Wednesday, April 10, with both matches seeing singles action only. The Cats took a 4-2 win over the Bowling Green Falcons before sweeping the EKU Colonels, 6-0, in the evening match.
Kentucky took straight set victories on the first four courts to secure the victory over the Falcons. No. 8 Jesse Witten and Gustav Pousette took dominating wins over Vitek Wild and Milos Jirout, while Evan Austin battled to a 7-5,7-5 victory over Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo to put him back on the winning path. Rahim Esmail saw action at the No. 4 spot grabbing a 6-2,6-2 win. Matt Emery, seeing action for the first time since his injury on March 22 against Baylor, and Elliott Datlow dropped tough matches at the No. 5 and No. 6 courts.
In the later match, UK took a dominating win over the Colonels with straight set victories on all six courts. Seniors Pousette and Johan Grunditz took victories on the first and second courts, while No. 59 Karim Benmansour grabbed his victory at No. 3 over Alvin Cheng. Austin tallied a second victory on the day at No. 4, while Esmail added another win to his impressive 19-2 season record. Datlow bounced back from his loss in the first match to defeat Ross Schitter at No. 6 after a battle in the second set.
“I think our team saw some great action today,” sophomore Rahim Esmail said. ” Our match play today should really help our confidence for the weekend matches.”
The Cats return to SEC action for the final home match of the season when they face the 54th-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores on Friday, April 12. The match is set to start at 2 p.m. in the friendly confines of the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex on the UK campus. Admission is free.
AGATE: Kentucky 4, Bowling Green 2
Singles
No. 1#8 Jesse Witten (UK) def. Vitek Wild (BG)6-4,6-2
No. 2#84 Gustav Pousette (UK) def. Milos Jirout (BG)6-3,6-0
No. 3Evan Austin (UK) def. Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo (BG)7-5,7-5
No. 4Rahim Esmail (UK) def. Ian Bliss (BG)6-2,6-2
No. 5Joel Carney (BG) def. Matt Emery (UK)6-1,6-0
No. 6Mike Kossoff (BG) def. Elliott Datlow (UK) 6-1,6-1
Kentucky 6, EKU 0
Singles
No. 1#84 Gustav Pousette (UK) def. Seth Hauser (EKU)6-1,6-4
No. 2#94 Johan Grunditz (UK) def. Luke Recker (EKU)6-1,6-2
No. 3#59 Karim Benmansour (UK) def. Alvin Cheng (EKU)6-0,6-3
No. 4Evan Austin (UK) def. Lee Lester (EKU)6-3,6-3
No. 5Rahim Esmail (UK) def. Billy Pfaffinger (EKU)6-1,6-2
No. 6Elliott Datlow (UK) def. Ross Schitter (EKU)6-2,7-5
