The vacation’s over for men’s tennis

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By Alex Risen

The Hawaii holiday is over.

That’s the feeling the UK men’s tennis team got during the 2009 Southeastern Conference Coaches Indoor Championship, held at the UK Tennis Complex. The Cats came up short in the last stretch of several individual matches, with team play beginning next weekend.

“We’re in the best conference in the country,” UK men’s tennis head coach Dennis Emery said. “This weekend was good for us and we’re building on team chemistry.”

Even in individual play, chemistry can make or break the team when hard times hit, Emery said.

“As a team, we weren’t aggressive enough,” Emery said. “Sometimes our guys just slacked off and wanted the other guy to lose the point instead of us win it.”

This past weekend didn’t just show the Cats their intensity level; it affirmed that they are going to be deep in singles play, but doubles may be a question mark according to Emery.

The depth Emery referred to lies with two young players. Sophomore Brad Cox and freshman Eric Quigley fought against tough competition from the national-championship-hungry SEC elite. Georgia is the defending back-to-back national champions and currently the No. 3 team in the country.

But the SEC Coaches’ Indoor Championship offered several other top teams for the Cats to scratch at: No. 8 Tennessee, No. 9 Ole Miss, No. 10 Florida, No. 19 LSU, No. 23 Alabama and No. 56 Mississippi State were all ready to get a crack at the conference competition.

Cox lost a close bout against Tennessee’s J.P. Smith. Smith is the national runner-up from last season, and Cox’s performance is very promising for the Cats’ season.

“We all started out a little slow,” Cox said. “We have to be better prepared and more aggressive to win matches as the season wears on.”

Quigley, the No. 34 singles player in the nation, fell to Florida’s Antoine Benneteau in three sets. Despite the early season loss, Quigley doesn’t see any reason to let the defeat slow him down.

“The tournament was good because it gets me ready for SEC play,” Quigley said. “I was definitely guilty of slacking on some points when I was up and I think I played better from behind.”

The Cats start team play on Saturday when they play host to North Carolina-Wilmington, Wright State and Murray State. Once UK gets into the meat of its schedule, Emery sees no soft spots on the schedule.

“We play one of the toughest schedules in the country every year,” Emery said. “We have something like 16 matches against top-25 opponents and we have to be more aggressive if we are going to win those.”