UK senior All-American Jesse Witten is one step away from becoming Kentucky?s first national champion in tennis after posting a semifinal victory Saturday at the ITA National Indoor Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The third-seeded Witten defeated Stanford?s second-seeded Sam Warburg by a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 count in a two-and-a-half hour semifinal Saturday afternoon to advance to the championship match. Witten will square off against Illinois? unseeded Ryler DeHeart, a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 semifinal winner over Old Dominion?s Izak van der Merwe, in Sunday?s final. The men?s and women?s doubles finals begin at 11:30 a.m. EST with the men?s and women?s singles finals to follow. The matches will be broadcast live at www.radiotennis.com.

Witten becomes the first Kentucky men?s or women?s tennis player to advance to the finals of the ITA National Indoor Championships. The three-time All-American from Naples, Fla., also is the most recent student-athlete to represent Kentucky in a national singles title match after reaching the singles finals of the 2002 NCAA Tennis Championships, where he fell to Georgia?s Matias Boeker.

Witten is the first Wildcat to participate in a national-title match since his sister, Sarah Witten, and Amy Trefethen played for the doubles title at the 2003 NCAA Tennis Championships, where they dropped a two-setter to California?s Christina Fusano and Raquel Kops-Jones.

The ITA National Indoor Championship is one of three national championships sanctioned annually by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. The ITA All-American Championships were held last month in Chattanooga, Tenn., and the 2005 NCAA Tennis Championships are set for next May at Texas A&M.

AGATE:

ITA National Indoor Championships ? Ann Arbor, Mich.
Singles ? Semifinal

(3) Jesse Witten (UK) def. (2) Sam Warburg (SU) ? 6-4, 2-6, 6-4