Jan. 15, 2003

The University of Kentucky men’s tennis team travels south to compete in the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships to be played at the Racquet Club of the South in Norcross, Ga. on Jan. 16-19. This will be the last individual tournament for the Cats before dual-matches begin on Jan. 22 against Morehead State and Southeast Louisiana.

The tournament will consist of a 64-player singles draw and a 32-team doubles draw with finals taking place on Sunday.

Leading the way for Kentucky is sophomore Jesse Witten, who comes in ranked fourth in the nation and is the top-ranked player in the SEC. Three teammates are also ranked in the top 100. Junior Karim Benmansour comes in at No. 73, junior Rahim Esmail earns a No. 91 ranking after an impressive fall, and sophomore Evan Austin is ranked No. 100.

All four of those players are also ranked in doubles. Esmail and Witten used a win over the fall preseason No. 6 team of Georgia’s Nicolas Boeker/Bo Hodge to open the spring season at No. 41. The tandem of Benmansour and Austin is ranked No. 56.

Complete results will be available following each day’s competition on the men’s tennis page of www.georgiadogs.com.