Kentucky’s historic men’s tennis season ends in NCAA Elite Eight
One of Kentucky’s best men’s tennis seasons ever came to a close Thursday when the Wildcats were beaten 4-0 by Texas Christian in the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Tournament at Stillwater, Oklahoma.
TCU, the No. 4 seed in the 64-team field, put a stop to a 20-match winning streak for the No. 5 Wildcats, whose season ended with a 27-3 record.
Kentucky, which had not lost a match before Thursday since a 4-3 defeat at Duke on Feb. 11, went on to win the Southeastern Conference regular season and tournament championships. The Cats then beat DePaul, Illinois and Harvard to gain access to the NCAA quarterfinals for the third season in a row.
In 2021-22, UK fell to Virginia in the NCAA championship match. Last year, the Wildcats were ousted by the Cavaliers in the Elite Eight. Both times, Virginia went on to win the national title.
Neither Virginia nor Kentucky made it to the Final Four this time. The No. 3-seed Cavaliers fell 4-1 to No. 6 seed Wake Forest on Thursday.
Saturday’s national semifinals will pit No. 1 Ohio State vs TCU at noon and No. 2 Texas vs. Wake Forest at 2:30 p.m.
TCU (26-4) got the jump on Kentucky on Thursday by taking the doubles point. TCU’s team of Jack Pinnington and Sebastian Gorzny beat Kentucky’s Taha Baadi and Jack Loutit 6-3, and the Horned Frogs’ Duncan Chan-Lui Maxted topped UK’s Eli Stephenson-Jaden Weekes 6-4.
Texas Christian carried that momentun into singles where Pinnington beat Baadi 6-4, 6-3, Maxted topped Charlelie Cosnet 6-3, 6-1, and Gorzny defeated Loutit 6-4, 6-4.
Kentucky’s Baadi, Lapadat and JJ Mercer will remain in Stillwater for the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships, May 20-25. Lapadat and Mercer are the No. 3 seed in the doubles draw, while Baadi will represent the Wildcats in singles.
