LEXINGTON, Ky. – No. 18 Kentucky claimed the doubles point against No. 14 LSU and never looked back, as the Cats posted a decisive 6-1 victory over the Tigers Friday at UK?s Boone Tennis Complex. Kentucky improves to 9-4 and 2-1 in the conference, while LSU drops to 9-2 and 1-2 in SEC play.
Kentucky rebounded from a No. 3 doubles loss to clinch the doubles point at the one and two positions. Evan Austin and Alex Hume defeated LSU?s Peter Richman and Ken Skupski at No. 2 by an 8-6 margin. Rahim Esmail and Jesse Witten followed suit at No. 1 in defeating the ITA?s 20th-ranked doubles tandem of Bryan Fisher and Jason Hazley to give the Cats a lead they would not relinquish.
Witten seized control early at No. 1 singles, taking the first set, 6-2 and blanking the 58th-ranked Skupski in the second set to give Kentucky a 2-0 lead. Nate Emge rebounded from a 4-3 second-set deficit to run the table the rest of the way, turning away LSU?s Fisher by a 6-1, 6-4 count. Austin clinched the Wildcat victory when LSU?s Hazley defaulted at No. 2 singles mid-way through the second set after Austin had claimed the first.
Esmail fell behind 4-1 at No. 5 before rallying to force a tiebreaker, which he captured. The senior from Vancouver, B.C. went on to defeat LSU?s Sebastian Rutka by way of a 6-4 second-set showing. Tigran Martirosyan fell behind a set at No. 3 but posted wins in the remaining two sets to close the match.
Kentucky welcomes No. 24 Arkansas to the Boone Tennis Complex Sunday at 1 p.m. EST. Live scoring updates will be available at www.ukathletics.com.
No. 18 Kentucky 6, No. 14 LSU 1
Doubles 1. Esmail/Witten (UK) def. No. 20 Fisher/Hazley (LSU) ? 8-6 2. Austin/Hume (UK) def. Richman/Skupski (LSU) ? 8-6 3. Ross/Rutka (LSU) def. Emge/Martirosyan (UK) ? 8-4 Singles 1. No. 15 Jesse Witten (UK) def. No. 58 Ken Skupski (LSU) ? 6-2, 6-0 2. Evan Austin (UK) def. Jason Hazley (LSU) ? 7-5, 4-3, def. 3. Tigran Martirosyan (UK) def. Peter Richman (LSU) ? 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 4. Nate Emge (UK) def. Bryan Fisher (LSU) ? 6-1, 6-4 5. Rahim Esmail (UK) def. Sebastian Rutka (LSU) ? 7-6, 6-4 6. Cory Ross (LSU) def. Jason Mallaiah (UK) ? 6-7, 1-6, 2-6
