May 1, 2003

Kentucky sophomore Jesse Witten, a 2002 NCAA singles finalist, has earned another chance to compete for the NCAA singles title. Witten was one of 64 student-athletes selected by the NCAA Thursday to participate in the singles portion of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships May 21-26 in Athens, Ga.

Witten will be seeded between the ninth and sixteenth slots by way of his No. 9 Omni Hotels/ITA ranking and 12-10 record against some of the best athletes in collegiate tennis at No. 1 singles. As the fourth seed in 2002, Witten defeated five highly-regarded opponents before falling in the NCAA singles-title match to Georgia’s Matias Boeker in two sets.

In other news, the dates and times have been set for the first and second rounds of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament at UK’s Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex. Ohio State and Arkansas will begin their match at 9 a.m. EDT on Saturday, May 10, and the Kentucky-Hampton match will follow at 12 p.m. EDT. The winners of the two matches will square off Sunday, May 11 at 1 p.m. EDT for the right to play in the round of 16 at the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships May 16-20 in Athens, Ga.