PREVIEW: Kentucky Men’s Tennis hosts Wake Forest in NCAA Super Regional
The No. 8 seed Kentucky Wildcats (23-7) host the No. 9 seed Wake Forest Demon Deacons (33-6) Saturday at 2:00 P.M. in the NCAA Super Regional with a trip to Champaign, Illinois on the line. The match is scheduled to be played outside at the Hillary J. Boone Tennis Center on the UK campus, but could possibly move right next door to the indoor center if it rains.
After Wake Forest and Kentucky were both upset at home in the Round of 32 last year, both teams took care of business last weekend. The Wildcats knocked off DePaul (4-0) and Northwestern (4-2) in Lexington last weekend to earn their first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2014. Wake Forest defeated Radford (4-0) and Auburn (4-1) last weekend in Winston Salem (Wake Forest University is located two hours from Wake Forest, NC!) to set up the matchup with UK.
The teams are very evenly matched. The Deacons are ranked No. 8, one spot ahead of UK, but the committee awarded UK the higher seed and right to host. Perhaps the committee valued conference tournament performance. The ‘Cats made the SEC finals before losing to #2 Florida, while the Demon Deacons were upset by Georgia Tech in the ACC quarterfinals. Wake is 1-5 against top 10 teams and 32-1 against everyone else. UK, who is undefeated against teams outside the Top 10, is 1-7 against Top 10 teams with two of those losses coming against defending champion and tournament favorite Florida. The ‘Cats own a 4-3 victory over #5 Tennessee, a team that defeated Wake Forest 4-3.
Wake Forest has been a power for the last several years. They hosted and won the 2018 national championship. Current players Eduardo Nava and Rrezart Cungu were on that roster but were not part of the everyday lineup that season.
Kentucky is now one win away from their first NCAA quarterfinal since Eric Quigley led them there in 2011 where they fell to eventual champion USC. Quigley captured four KHSAA singles titles at South Oldham before joining UK, where he made the NCAA singles finals. Current UK Coach Cedrick Kauffman was an assistant on that epic 2011 team and took over as head coach in 2012, replacing the legendary Dennis Emery. Kauffman was a standout player at UK and pushed Pete Sampras to the brink in a 5th set thriller in the French Open.
The eight super regional winners will travel to the University of Illinois to compete for the NCAA team championship May 19-22.
Potential Matchups
Kentucky vs Wake Forest
No. 1 Singles: #4 Liam Draxl (JR) CANADA (13-7) vs #89 Jurabek Karimov (GS) UZBEKISTAN (6-11)
No. 2 Singles: #21 Gabrielle Diallo (JR) CANADA (18-3) vs Melios Efstathiou (SR) CYPRUS (16-6)
No. 3 Singles: #83 Millen Hurrion (5TH) ENGLAND (19-7) vs #61 Eduardo Nava (5th) CALIFORNIA (19-9)
No. 4 Singles: Francois Musitelli (5TH) FRANCE (16-8) vs Rrezart Cungu (5th) MONTENEGRO (16-6)
Top 10
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Iron Bowl
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No. 5 Singles: Joshua Lapadat (SO) CANADA (21-2) vs Jakob Schnaitter (5th) GERMANY (24-2)
No. 6 Singles: JJ Mercer (SO) WEST VIRGINIA (6-9) vs Sid Banthia (SR) INDIA (14-2)
No. 1 Doubles: #55 Musitelli/Hurrion (5-5) vs Nava/Rob Maciag (JR) VIRGINIA (4-1)
No. 2 Doubles: Diallo/Lapadat (5-1) vs #34 Banthia/Schnaitter (12-5)
No. 3 Doubles: Draxl/Alexandre LeBlanc (JR) CANADA (8-2) vs Matt Thomson (JR) NORTH CAROLINA /Ben Draper (5th) ENGLAND (6-1)
Scoring
All lets are played. Singles matches are best of three tiebreak sets, with no-ad scoring. Doubles matches are one set. Whichever school wins two doubles matches earns the doubles point. Singles matches are worth one point each. The first team to win four points captures the match.
Path to Victory
Josh Lapadat, has been a near-lock at No. 5 for UK and I expect that to continue again this weekend, even though his possible opponent, Jacob Schnaitter, has won 17-consecutive matches. Lapadat is also UK’s most improved player since last year. Liam Draxl, a semifinalist last year in the NCAA singles tournament, will be favored in his matchup at No. 1 as well. UK has struggled a bit at No. 6 and in doubles earlier in the year but has been better recently with Gabrielle Diallo healthy and back in the doubles lineup. The pairing of Draxl and the big-serving Alexandre LeBlanc has been a good combination at the three doubles spot. There is a chance that Filippo Moroni may return from injury to play No. 5 singles and give the Demon Deacons a boost. Wake has a deep lineup and may be the favorite at No. 6 and a slight favorite in doubles. I predict 2, 3, and 4 to all be very competitive with Wake being favored on 4 and UK taking courts 1, 2, 3 and 5 to win a tight 4-3 matchup.
Tickets
General admission tickets are $10 and can be purchased here. Full-time UK students may show their valid ID for a free ticket, paid for by UK Athletics.
Sweet 16 Schedule
North Carolina State at #1 TCU – Saturday at 4:00 P.M. – Troy’s prediction: TCU 4-0
#9 Wake Forest at #8 Kentucky – Saturday at 2:00 P.M. – Troy’s prediction: UK 4-3
#12 Texas at #5 Michigan – Saturday at 1:00 P.M. – Troy’s prediction: Texas 4-3
#13 USC at #4 Ohio State – Saturday at 12:00 P.M. – Troy’s prediction: Ohio State 4-1
Stanford at #3 Baylor –Friday at 7:30 P.M. – Troy’s prediction: Baylor 4-2
Florida State at #6 Tennessee – Saturday at 4:00 P.M. – Troy’s prediction: Tennessee 4-1
#10 South Carolina at #7 Virginia – Friday at 3:00 P.M. – Troy’s prediction: Virginia 4-2
#15 North Carolina at #2 Florida – Friday at 5:00 P.M. – Troy’s prediction: Florida 4-1
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