April 18, 2003
OXFORD, Miss. – Fourth-seeded Kentucky avenged a Mar. 30 loss to LSU in Baton Rouge with a 4-1 defeat of the Tigers Friday in the quarterfinals of the SEC Men’s Tennis Tournament on the campus of the University of Mississippi. The Cats opened by taking the doubles point and never relinquished control in singles play.
In doubles play, Rahim Esmail and Jesse Witten started things off for the Wildcats with an easy 8-2 victory at No. 2 over Cory Ross and Sebastian Rutka. Early on, the Tigers closed within 3-2, but the Cats’ 55th-ranked pair took the next five games en route to the victory. At No. 3, Evan Austin and Alex Hume closed out LSU’s Peter Richman and Paul White in similar fashion. The match was tied at four before the Wildcats took four straight games to secure the doubles point.
LSU tied the match at one as Sebastian Rutka defeated Matt Emery in straight sets. Soon thereafter, Witten and Esmail gave Kentucky a commanding 3-1 lead with straight-set victories of their own. Witten knocked out Richman, 6-3, 6-3, and Esmail dispatched Ross, 7-5, 6-3. At No. 2, UK’s Austin swatted a sensational lob just beyond the reach of LSU’s Bryan Fisher to seal a 6-4, 6-3 victory, clinching the match for Kentucky. The remaining matches at numbers three and six were suspended.
“We knew we were going to need a great all-around performance to beat LSU today, and I was encouraged to see how well this team responded,” said Kentucky Coach Dennis Emery.
“As solid as our effort was today, we’ll need an even better showing tomorrow if we’re going to get to the SEC Championship.”
In the semifinals, Kentucky will take on top-seeded Florida, a 4-0 quarterfinal winner over Alabama. The Gators dominated the Wildcats last month in Gainesville, running away with a 6-1 victory. UK will begin play Saturday at 10 a.m. CDT at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center.
AGATE:
AGATE:
Doubles1. Karim Benmansour/Matt Emery (UK) vs. Bryan Fisher/Jason Hazley (LSU) 6-7, susp.2. Rahim Esmail/Jesse Witten (UK) def. Cory Ross/Sebastian Rutka (LSU) 8-23. Evan Austin/Alex Hume (UK) def. Peter Richman/Paul White (LSU) 8-4
Singles1. Jesse Witten (UK) def. Peter Richman (LSU) 6-3, 6-32. Evan Austin (UK) def. Bryan Fisher (LSU) 6-4, 6-33. Karim Benmansour (UK) vs. Jason Hazley (LSU) 6-1, 5-5, susp.4. Sebastian Rutka (LSU) def. Matt Emery (UK) 6-4, 6-35. Rahim Esmail (UK) def. Cory Ross (LSU) 7-5, 6-36. Alex Hume (UK) vs. Paul White (LSU) 6-3, 3-6, 0-3, susp.
