Kentucky mens tennis nears end of season with championship ambitions intact

By Sara Gibson sports@kykernel.com

Kentucky tennis began its season strong, going a perfect 12-0 before dropping its first match of the season to TCU in the semifinals of ITA National Indoor Championships.

After the tournament conference play began for the Wildcats, with South Carolina being their first opponent, the Gamecocks gave them their second loss of the season.

Following the backto-back losses, Kentucky would go on a dominant seven-match win streak led by senior Liam Draxl and junior Josh Lapadat.

Lapadat is currently 17-3 in singles play this season and half of the No. 66 doubles pair in the country with partner JJ Mercer. The duo has gone 10-4 in doubles play on the year.

Draxl, the 2021 national player of the year, is 16-4 in singles play this year and 13-5 with doubles partners Alafia Ayeni or freshman Jaden Weekes.

Over the seven-match stretch, the Wildcats took down No. 22 Auburn and No. 12 Mississippi State, with multiple Wildcats taking home SEC accolades.

Draxl earned the fourth SEC Player of the Week award of his collegiate career for his sweeping victories over Ole Miss and Mississippi State, adding his seventh ranked win of the season.

Weekes earned his first SEC Freshman of the Week honors after his performance against LSU and Arkansas, going an impressive 4-0 on the weekend without dropping a single set.

“We’ve done a great job, but we have to stay humble and keep working to reach our end goal,” Weekes said following the team’s win over Mississippi State. “(Our goal) is to win SEC’s and hopefully even NCAA’s.”

Ayeni, a senior, steppedup during SEC play, winning five straight singles matches along with six straight doubles matches with partner Taha Baadi. The dominant stretch earned the duo a No. 25 ITA ranking.

Despite that, Kentucky’s win streak abruptly ended with a road loss in a top 10 showdown against No. 8 Georgia.

After dropping the doubles point and seeing the highest ranked Wildcats — No. 20 Draxl and No. 34 Ayeni — fall, Kentucky was unable to make a comeback and lost 5-2.

Just two days later, No. 14 Tennessee handed the Wildcats their fourth loss of the season in sweeping fashion.

For the first-time all-season Kentucky was held score- less, losing the doubles point and falling in straight sets for all three singles matches. Following the two losses, Kentucky is now 19-4 overall and 7-3 in conference play, having dropped from No. 4 in ITA rankings down to No. 6, with South Carolina being the only

SEC school ahead of them at No. 5.

Only two matches remain in the regular season for the Cats: senior day on April 9 against Vanderbilt and a rematch with No. 19 Florida.

Kentucky faced off against Florida in the first round of ITA National Indoor Cham- pionships in February, where the Cats won 4-1.

The SEC tournament will follow the regular season beginning on April 19 in Auburn, Alabama, before Kentucky will look to take it one step further than it did in 2022 when it lost in the championship game to Florida.