Five Wildcats Travel to Athens for ITA South Sectional Championships
ATHENS, Ga. – Five Kentucky men’s tennis players are set to travel to Athens, Ga. for the 2025 ITA South Sectional Championships, hosted by Georgia at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex from November 6-9. Jack Loutit, Eli Stephenson, and Charlelie Cosnet will participate in both singles and doubles, while Matt Rankin is entered in the singles draw, and Martin Breysach will contest doubles with Cosnet.
The event, entering its second iteration, will serve as the final qualification opportunity for the 2025 NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships. Six singles players, made up of the four semifinalists and two quarterfinal playoff winners, and three doubles teams, the two finalists and a third-place playoff winner, will earn bids to the individual championships.
32 singles players and 16 doubles teams are entered into the event, set to begin on Thursday, November 6. Play is set to begin at 10 a.m. ET each day. After opening rounds on Thursday, singles round of 16 matches and doubles quarterfinals will be held on Friday. The first NCAA bids will be handed out on Saturday with the playing of the singles quarterfinals and doubles semifinals. Sunday’s final day of play will see the losers from Saturday contest each other for the final available slots. The tournament will not be played to completion; instead, the event will end once all NCAA bids are finalized.
No. 28 Loutit enters the draw as the tournament’s No. 1 seed, returning to the event after qualifying to his first NCAA Singles Championship at the 2024 South Sectional in Tallahassee, Fla. The Auckland, New Zealand native was one match away from qualifying to the NCAA Singles Championship at the 2025 All-American Championships, retiring due to injury in the consolation semifinals. Loutit will open his run against Georgia’s Cooper Johnson.
Stephenson enters the singles draw after a stellar run at the All-American Championships, where the junior from Louisville advanced to the main draw from pre-qualifying, compiled a 7-2 record, and earned a career-high three ranked wins. He will begin play in the round of 32 against No. 8 seed and ITA No. 120 Erik Schiessl of Florida State.
Rankin will play his third tournament of the fall after earning wins at the All-American Championships and Ohio Valley Regional Championships. The Edinburgh, Scotland native will start his run in Athens against Facundo Yunis of Indiana.
Cosnet will play for the first time since multiple singles wins at the All-American Championships. The Le Mans, France native will face the tournament’s No. 2 seed, and ITA No. 80, Arda Azkara in the opening round on Thursday.
On the doubles side, the Cats are led by 2025 ITA All-Americans Loutit and Stephenson. The team is currently ranked No. 37 in the nation and peaked inside the top ten last season. After losing their opening match at the All-American Championships, the team, seeded No. 4 in the event, will play their second contest of the season against Luciano Alcocer and Yeray Andres Pastor of Troy.
Breysach and Cosnetwill make up the other half of Kentucky’s doubles pairs after playing 11 dual matches together last season. Breysach is currently ranked in the ITA Doubles Rankings, although with Antoine Ghibaudo and not Cosnet. The duo will open up their run against Gabrielle Vulpitta and Cooper Johnson of Georgia.
Should any of Kentucky’s six entries earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament, the event is scheduled from November 18-23 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida.
For the latest on UK Men’s Tennis, follow the Wildcats on X and Instagram at @UKMensTennis.
