Nov. 3, 2013

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Senior Ryuji Hirooka and freshman Nils Ellefsen combined to take the 2013 Louisville Invitational ‘A’ Doubles Championship on Sunday afternoon, claiming the first doubles title of the fall season for the University of Kentucky men’s tennis team.

“Ryuji and Nils did a great job of taking care of business today,” UK assistant coach Matt Emery said after the win. “This was their first tournament playing together, and they showed significant improvement each match they played. They beat a very tough Louisville team in the final by executing a very simple gameplan.”

The Wildcat duo started their run to the title on Friday afternoon, recording an 8-2 win over Edward Becker and Daniel Elston on Longwood College in the opening round of the top doubles flight.

In the second round of the event, Ellefsen and Hirooka took down the No. 1 seed in the doubles championship, Yannick Born and Ettore Zito of Middle Tennessee State University. Hirooka and Ellefsen won that match 8-5 to move into the semifinal round. 

In the semifinals, Hirooka and Ellefsen made easy work of Jeffrey Brown and Michael Lippons of the University of Louisville to advance to the finals on Sunday morning. 

In the finals, Hirooka and Ellefsen knocked off another Cardinals duo, as the Wildcats defeated Luis Elizondo and Amaury Derognat of Louisville to claim the doubles title on Sunday afternoon in Louisville.

On the other side of the draw, Kentucky had a great performance by Charles Minc and Maks Gold, who also advanced to Sunday action, winning their first two matches to advance to the semifinals. 

For continuing coverage of UK men’s tennis, log on to UKathletics.com.