Tennis Cats eliminated at NCAA Championships

Staff report | @KyKernelSports

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After UK men’s tennis lost in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 to Duke, senior Anthony Rossi, junior Tom Jomby and freshman Kevin Lai went back to Urbana, Ill. For the NCAA singles and doubles championships.

On day one, Rossi, who entered as the No. 4 overall seed, took down Stanford’s John Morrissey 7-5 6-1 to advance to the second round.

The first set was tight as eight of the 12 games in the set went to deuce with Rossi breaking Morrissey’s serve to take the early lead.

In the second set Rossi continued where he left off by taking an early 1-0 lead, but was stalled when a hour long rain delay stopped play. Rossi came back out and won five of the final six games to take the second set and the match.

Jomby, who came in as the No. 23 seed, lost to Duke’s Michael Redlicki in three sets 6-7, 7-6, 1-6.  After two tie break sets Jomby got blown out in the third set and just like that his singles season was over.

On day two, Rossi was back in action against Andre Dome of California Polytechnic State for the right to advance to the Sweet 16.

Rossi dropped the first set 6-2, but came back to win the second set in a tie break and force a deciding third set.

In the third set Rossi was again set back by rain, and the match move indoors. Rossi never recovered after the delay and lost the deciding set, 6-3.

Rossi ends his career with 106 singles victories, tied for 12th all-time at UK, and his .769 win percentage is second only to Eric Quigley in program history.

Also on day two, Jomby and Lai got to take the court for the doubles tournament. The duo saw their season come to an end after a straight sets loss to Lucas Ana and Victor Valente of Georgia State, 6-4 7-6.

Freshman Nadia Ravita was in action on the women’s side of the championships, going down in straight sets to No. 3 seed Robin Anderson of the University of California, Los Angeles.

Ravita went down 6-3 6-4 in her fifth singles loss of the season.