Eric Quigley, fresh off four worthy accomplishments in a month’s time, sat at the table in front of about 15 reporters and prepared to answer questions at his first real news conference at Kentucky.Surely, through Quigley’s unmatched success at the high school tennis level (four Kentucky state titles), he was used to the lights of the cameras and the coverage from the press.And then he was asked his first question.”Do you like French food, Eric?” a reporter asked.”I like pastries and stuff,” Quigley said. “My roommate has introduced me to some of the food. I can’t say I’ve ever been there before, but we’ll see.”Wait, what? French food? France?Well, it all makes sense when you look at what Quigley has done over the past month to start his sophomore campaign and the 2009-10 tennis season at UK. Quigley will in fact be traveling to France for a week’s time starting Dec. 9. The Pewee Valley, Ky., native was one of three American collegians selected to represent the United State in the fourth annual Master’U BNP Paribas, a prestigious international collegiate competition.The selection was just one of four noteworthy accomplishments for a tennis star playing perhaps the best tennis of his life. In the last month, Quigley has toppled the nation’s No. 1 player, reached the quarterfinals of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American Championships and won the Ohio Valley Regional Championships, in addition to his selection to go to France.”I definitely have to put my tennis right now up there with the best I’ve ever played,” Quigley said. “Just in key moments I’ve stepped up and relaxed just because I know my confidence is there. It’s been coming through when I need to.”Head coach Dennis Emery, who has watched Quigley blossom throughout his young career in the junior circuits around the nation and his domination on the state high school level, said Quigley is playing with more confidence than he ever has.”He would certainly be playing the best tennis of his career right now,” Emery said. “Hopefully there are other levels to go to, but to this level, yeah, he’s playing a very good game. He’s played aggressively, he’s not making many mistakes, he’s putting up some great numbers in terms of his winner-to-error ratio and his first-serve percentage. He’s very good in almost category that you can chart right now.”Thanks to his regional championship in Bloomington, Ind., last week, Quigley will head to the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, which starts Thursday against an opponent to be determined at Yale. Although Quigley is unseeded and will face the nation’s best players, Emery, now in his 28th season at the helm of the Kentucky tennis program, thinks Quigley can win the tournament.”He’s playing better than anybody else in the country right now,” Emery said. “Now he could go there and lose in an hour and he may play the one or two seed because he’s not seeded and lose early.” But, Emery believes Quigley has as good of a shot as anybody because of the rapid development he has made since his freshman year. Quigley, who Emery calls an overpowering player, won a ton of matches in his initial season with UK, but Emery said he’s become a more complete player.Emery noted a more powerful serve and better return game as Quigley’s biggest improvements.”He’s getting a lot more free points off his serve,” Emery said. “It’s been a big difference for him. He’s returning much better so he’s putting a lot of pressure on his opponent early in the point.”Quigley gained some invaluable inexperience over the summer in lower level pro tournaments, which he said carried over to his defeat of the top-ranked player, Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Oklahoma State, on Oct. 8.”I feel like I have a shot for everything,” Quigley said. “It just takes that much more pressure off me and I’m getting more relaxed in pressure moments in the match. I just feel really good out there right now.”Confidence has never been an issue with Quigley, according to Emery, but there’s something to be said about talking about being one of the best and actually playing with the best.”We felt like Eric could have an All-American type season, but until you’re actually beating some of those guys, it’s maybe hard to buy into it a little bit,” Emery said. “It’s not that he just beat the No. 1 player, it’s that he really dominated the No. 1 player in that match. He controlled all the points, he controlled the emotion of the match – he won that match in every way that you could win it.”Quigley has long been hailed as one of the best – if not the best – to play high school tennis in Kentucky. Now the graduate of South Oldham High School is making a case to be one of the all-time greats at the University of Kentucky.”We’ve been very blessed to have a bunch of great players, but I would say he’s on track to be a good one,” Emery said. “Now, he’s got a long way to go to do that and a lot of matches to be won, but from a character standpoint and a talent standpoint, he’s someone who has a chance to have one of the great careers here.”A championship this week at the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships would quickly vault his name to the top with some of the all-time Kentucky legends like Jesse Witten, Cedric Kauffmann and recent graduate Bruno Agostinelli.Quigley said it was pretty “cool” to watch a former UK great like Witten march through this summer’s U.S. Open, adding that he hopes to one day do the same, but for now he’s focused on the Indoor Championships. As far as winning it, he’s never been more confident.”Why not go all the way?” Quigley said. “With the way I’m playing right now, I don’t see why I can’t go all the way.”