Nov. 2, 2008
LEXINGTON, Ky. – After defeating the top-ranked player in the morning session, Kentucky men’s tennis senior Bruno Agostinelli fell just short of recording the ultimate back-to-back win combination as the country’s No. 2 player, Baylor’s Denes Lukacs, defeated the Wildcat 7-6(6), 6-2, in the final of the 10th-annual Charles Fluitt Invitational at the Boone Tennis Center on Sunday.
This year’s championship was a rematch of last year’s finalists. In 2007, Lukacs bested Agostinelli in another tight two-set final edging the Wildcat 7-6(5), 7-5. The finals appearance was Agostinelli’s third in four tournaments this autumn.
Agostinelli, the 19th-ranked player in the nation, came into the afternoon final fresh off of a three-set upset semifinal win over Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State, the nation’s top-ranked player. Lukacs defeated fourth-seeded Boris Conkic of Tennessee in the other semifinal Sunday.
In the first set, Agostinelli kept it close with his patented backhand and pushed Lukacs to extra games and an eventual tiebreaker in the first set. Lukacs won the back-and-forth breaker in extra points, 8-6 to take the first frame. The Bear used the momentum of the first-set win to score some service breaks against the Wildcat and closed out the match with a 6-2 result.
With the victory, Lukacs secured a spot in the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters qualifying draw for the second straight year. The tourney will be held next summer in Cincinnati.
“We’ve had a ton of great Kentucky-Baylor matches in this building, including Jesse Witten versus Benjamin Becker and later Witten against Benedikt Dorsch,” said UK head coach Dennis Emery. “Now both of the Agostinelli versus Lukacs battles can be added to those great matches. Bruno should have no regrets about this match. He left it all out on the court. Hopefully this level of play will serve him well at next week’s National Indoors and the NCAA tournament in the spring.”
Wildcat sophomore Brad Cox and freshman Eric Quigley were in action earlier in the day. Cox knocked off Raees Ismail of Xavier 6-1, 7-6(5) to conclude the tournament at 2-1 while Julian Bley of Baylor edged Quigley 6-4, 7-6.
UK sponsors the Invitational in memory of the late Charles Fluitt who was a victim of the 1996 ValuJet plane crash in south Florida. He was the father of former UK tennis star Marcus Fluitt. In addition to playing an annual tournament in his name, UK tennis honored its fallen friend by dedicating Court No. 4 of the Boone Varsity Tennis Center as Charles Fluitt Memorial Court.
For more information on the 2009 Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati, visit Cincytennis.com.
Stay tuned to UKathletics.com to follow Agostinelli as he takes on the nation’s best players at the National Indoors next weekend.
