Kentucky Adds Kento Yamada

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky men’s tennis team signed Kento Yamada to a national letter of intent to join the Wildcats in 2017-18.

“Kento will be one of the best freshman in the country,” head coach Cedric Kauffmann said. “He will fit perfectly on our team and fits what the team is all about. He has high goals and we will do our best to help him achieve them. We are very excited to get him on campus and welcome him to our UK family.” 

Yamada will look to make an impact as soon as he steps on campus. The Kobe, Japan native has a universal tennis rating of 14.28, and has reached as high at 1,570 in the ATP singles rankings. In the doubles ATP rankings, he has hit the 795 mark. Yamada boasts double-digit wins totals over top-1,000 ATP players in his young career. 

In 2015, Yamada won the ITF Future Doubles Tournament in Turkey when he partnered with Carlos Taberner of Spain to take down Alban Meuffels and Romano Frantzen, 6-2, 6-2. The future Wildcat also made it to the finals of the 2015 Tunisia F1 Futures, the 2015 Spain F5 Futures and the 2014 Turkey F47 Futures tournament. 

The men’s tennis team just wrapped up the fall season and will kick off the dual season on Jan. 13 with a double-header featuring Eastern Kentucky and Dayton at the Boone Tennis Center in Lexington, Kentucky.

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