Kentucky Men's Tennis Blanks Presbyterian 4-0 in NCAA First Round

The No. 4 seeded Kentucky men’s tennis program blanked Presbyterian College 4-0 to kick off the Wildcats’ 2023 NCAA tournament run on a beautiful Friday afternoon at the Boone Tennis Center in Lexington, KY.

With the sweep, Kentucky moves on to the second round where they’ll face Northwestern on Saturday afternoon. Let’s recap how the ‘Cats got there.

It was a battle of conference champions as Kentucky (25-4) won the SEC for the first time since 1992 and Presbyterian (16-10) won the Big South Conference. 

Josh Lapadat, Jaden Weekes, and Taha Baadi picked up singles wins within five minutes of each other with Baadi getting the clincher 6-1, 6-2. 

KENTUCKY 🎾 wins 4-0! Lapadat, Weekes, and Baadi pick up singles wins within 5 minutes of each other. Here’s Baadi with the clinch!! On to the round of 32 tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/KzXvIQSeh0

— Troy Howell (@teeroyhowell) May 5, 2023

Freshman Jaden Weekes wins on court 5! pic.twitter.com/5YQsWYKxaM

— Troy Howell (@teeroyhowell) May 5, 2023

Charlelie Cosnet was leading 6-2, 5-1 on court 6 and was possibly only a minute away from clinching the match for Kentucky.

Kentucky has been an elite team all season. They are a top-four seed in the NCAA tournament for the first time this century and their NCAA runner-up finish last season was the deepest run in school history.

In a one-and-done format like this, upsets are more likely to happen — look no further than what Farleigh Dickinson did to Purdue during March Madness. So how did UK head coach Cedric Kauffman make sure his team didn’t get overconfident coming into the match?

“I tell them they aren’t as good as they think they are,” Kauffmann said with a smile. “At the end of the day that is what you tell them. They are good but we are not the best, we haven’t proven that. We have to win the NCAA (to be the best). To do that you have to get right back on the horse. They’ve celebrated for their SEC (title) but we went back to work right after.”

The marquee match on court 1 featured Kentucky superstar Liam Draxl against Big South Player of the Year, Dusan Milabovic. Draxl (18-6) is ranked #13 while Milanovic (19-2) is ranked #60. Milanovic won a tight first-set tiebreak before the match was suspended. Alafia Ayeni battled back from a break down to win his first set in a tiebreaker on court 2.

Doubles Point

Presbyterian’s number 1 team, ranked #59 in the country, claimed a fast 6-1 victory. Weekes and Draxl quickly countered to give Kentucky a 6-1 win on court 3 to even the overall doubles match. Meanwhile, on court 2, JJ Mercer and Lapadat won a deuce point at 2-2 to give Kentucky the only break of the match. The duo also won a massive deuce point on Mercer’s serve to go up 5-3.  

Huge deuce point win from Mercer & Lapadat to put UK up 5-3 on court 2. UK won court 3. PC won court 1. pic.twitter.com/thqK0Yy6o6

— Troy Howell (@teeroyhowell) May 5, 2023

Lapadat closed out the match with a strong game that featured three service winners, giving Kentucky the doubles point with a 6-3 victory. Mercer was very impressive at the net all match.

Kentucky tennis takes the doubles point vs PC in the first round of the NCAA 🎾 tournament! Strong service game from Josh Lapadat to close it out. Cats lead 1-0! pic.twitter.com/hqbbWFhBBt

— Troy Howell (@teeroyhowell) May 5, 2023

Doubles:

Court 1: #28 Ayeni/Baadi LOST 1-6
Court 2: #67 Lapadat/Mercer WON 6-3
Court 3: Draxl/Weekes WON 6-1

Order of finish 1,3,2

Singles:

Court 1: #13 Liam Draxl TRAILED 6-7 (5), 1-0
Court 2: #18 Alafia Ayeni LED 7-6. 0-1
Court 3: #59 Josh Lapadat WON 6-2, 6-1
Court 4: Taha Baadi WON 6-1, 6-2*
Court 5: Jaden Weekes WON 6-3, 6-2
Court 6: Charlelie Cosnet LED 6-2, 5-1

Order of Finish: 3, 5, 4

UK 🎾 head coach Cedric Kauffmann recaps the team’s NCAA round 1 win and previews tomorrow’s matchup with Northwestern.

How does he keep the highly seeded UK team from getting overconfident?
“I tell them they aren’t as good as they think they are.” pic.twitter.com/iaugzit2sT

— Troy Howell (@teeroyhowell) May 5, 2023

Next Up For Kentucky

It will be a battle of the Wildcats as Kentucky will take on #28 Northwestern (21-9) in the Round of 32 on Saturday for the second straight year. Kentucky won 4-2 last season in Lexington. Draxl will be out for revenge in his rematch against Steve Forman after falling to Forman 6-4, 7-6 (2) in that match from a year ago.

Northwestern defeated UCLA 4-2 earlier on Friday in a hard-fought battle to advance.

The battle of the ‘Cats is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. EST on Saturday at the Boone Tennis Center on campus. Come out and cheer loud! You can purchase tickets through UK Athletics.