No. 12 Kentucky Dominates Santa Clara, Advances to ITA Kickoff Weekend Championship Match
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The 12th-ranked Kentucky men’s tennis team opened up the Lexington Regional of the 2025 ITA Kickoff Weekend with a convincing 4-0 win over Santa Clara in First Round action. The Wildcats picked up the doubles point and singles wins from Antoine Ghibaudo, Jack Loutit, and Eli Stephenson to clinch a spot in tomorrow’s championship match. The Cats will face the winner of No. 20 Arizona State and Nebraska at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday, January 25, with the winner booking their ticket to the 2025 ITA Indoor National Championships.
Kentucky earned the first point of the match after a pair of doubles teams picked up their first victories of the season. Playing in only their second match as a pair, Frenchmen Ghibaudo and Charlelie Cosnet claimed their first victory together with a 6-3 win over Thiago Boschmanns and Valentin Faure. The win marked the first collegiate victory in either discipline for Ghibaudo, who made his Wildcat debut last week and was named the No. 1 Newcomer in college tennis by the ITA.
Kentucky would clinch the 1-0 lead in the dual with a win at No. 2 doubles, with Loutit and Stephenson taking a 6-3 victory over Alex Watanabe Eriksson and Luca Lemaitre in their first completed match of the season.
Loutit continued his impressive start to the 2025 dual season, as the NCAA Singles Qualifier moved to 4-0 on the season by picking up a 6-0, 6-1 win at No. 2 singles. Loutit only dropped one game across the two sets of play and is now a perfect 8-0 in sets played in 2025.
Stephenson was the next Wildcat to finish his singles match, moving his team within one point of victory. Like his Kiwi teammate, Stephenson is also 4-0 on the dual season after he dispatched Luca Bluett by a final score line of 6-4, 6-3 on court four.
Ghibaudo delivered the clinching points for the Wildcats in his home debut, taking down Alex Watanabe Eriksson 6-3, 7-5 at No. 1 singles. The Paris native earned his first collegiate singles victory with late surges in both sets.
No. 79 Cosnet split the first two sets on court three before his match was abandoned. Martin Breysach and Matt Rankin also had their No. 5 and No. 6 singles matches left unfinished due to the Kentucky clinch.
Saturday’s championship match will see the Wildcats vie for their 24th all-time appearance at the ITA Indoor National Championships. The Wildcats have qualified out of ITA Kickoff Weekend six times, with five of those berths coming at home. Kentucky last made the event in 2023, when the Cats advanced to the semifinals for the first time in program history. The tournament is scheduled to take place from February 14-18 at SMU’s Styslinger-Altec Tennis Complex and Baylor’s Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.
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No. 12 Kentucky vs. Santa Clara
Doubles Results
- Breysach/Weekes (UK) vs. Bluett/Kim (SCU) 5-4 (unfinished)
- Stephenson/Loutit (UK) def. Watanabe Eriksson/Lemaitre (SCU) 6-3
- Ghibaudo/Cosnet(UK) def. Boschmans/Faure (SCU) 6-3
Order of finish: 3, 2
Singles Results
- Antoine Ghibaudo (UK) def. Alex Watanabe Eriksson (UK) 6-3, 7-5
- Jack Loutit (UK) def. Lukas Maskow (SCU) 6-0, 6-1
- No. 79 Charlelie Cosnet (UK) vs. Luca Lemaitre (SCU) 3-6, 6-2, 1-1 (unfinished)
- Eli Stephenson (UK) def. Luca Bluett (SCU) 6-4, 6-3
- Martin Breysach (UK) vs. Valentin Faure (SCU) 3-4 (unfinished)
- Matt Rankin (UK) vs. John Kim (SCU) 0-0 (unfinished)
Order of finish: 2, 4, 1