Kentucky men’s tennis (4–2) showed its strength at home, starting with a sweep over Louisville (6–3).
The Wildcats started off strong in doubles with No. 69 Eli Stephenson and Jack Loutit pulling out an impressive 6-3 upset win over No. 21 Matei Onofrei and Andre Steinbach.
The final two doubles matches came down to the wire, with both decided in tiebreakers.
Nicolas Arseneault and Jaden Weekes narrowly fell to No. 59 Walid Ahouda and Hazma El Amine, 7–6 (7–4). Antoine Ghibaudo and Martin Breysach clinched the doubles point for the Wildcats, outlasting Pedro Cressoni and Russell Lokko in a hard-fought 7–6 (9–7) victory.
“I mean, always good to win the doubles, especially at home,” Kentucky head coach Cedric Kauffman said. “Tough to beat us when we win the doubles point.”
Holding a 1–0 advantage heading into singles, Kentucky kept its foot on the gas. Weekes set the tone with a dominant 6–2, 6–1 victory over Onofrei. Arseneault followed with a matching 6–2, 6–1 upset of No. 122 El Amine, earning a measure of revenge after the pair’s earlier doubles loss.
No. 124 Mikael Arseneault slammed the door on Louisville, cruising past Jerald Carroll 6–0, 6–1 to clinch a 4–0 victory for Kentucky.
“Well, I think, what those twins do very good, they don’t care what happened,” Kauffman said. “You know, five minutes before, 10 minutes before. They always compete every point the same, and this is what champions are made up of, and this is what they’re going to have a lot of wins for us.”
Ghibaudo’s match went unfinished due to Kentucky already securing the win, but not before he put himself in position for a major upset. Leading No. 68 Walid Ahouda with the score at 4–6, 6–1, 6–6 (4–2), Ghibaudo was on the brink of closing it out when play was stopped.
Meanwhile, No. 19 Stephenson and Steinbach squared off in a rematch. Stephenson came out strong, taking the opening set 6–3, before the match tightened. Steinbach edged the second set in a tiebreak, 7–6 (7–4), and the contest was halted with Stephenson trailing 3–1 in the third set.
Charlelie Cosnet ran out of time as well. After dropping the first set 6-3, Cosnet and Cressoni were stopped at 1-1 in the second set.
Kentucky men’s tennis (5-2) followed up its Louisville win with a long-fought upset victory 4-2 over the No. 12 Duke Blue Devils (4-3).
“I mean, we’re very happy,” Kauffman said. “Our locker room is happy. They’ve been working hard. At the national indoors, we got a little unlucky with some things, with injuries and things like that, but us to bounce back, that shows a lot of grit, a lot of toughness. So I’m really proud of the boys.”
Carrying their momentum into doubles play, the Wildcats opened strong as Breysach and Ghibaudo set the tone with a convincing 6–2 victory over Teddy Trent and Alexander Visser. Stephenson and Loutit battled closely but ultimately fell 6–4 to Pedro Rodenas and Cooper Williams, evening the doubles score.
Arseneault and Weekes pushed the match to the limit against Dylan Long and Ge Planelles Ripoll, grinding out a hard-fought 7–6 (7–4) tiebreak victory to secure the doubles point and give Kentucky a 1–0 advantage heading into singles.
Stephenson kept the Wildcats rolling, battling past Visser 7–6 (7–2), 6–4 to give Kentucky a 2–0 advantage.
Despite dropping the opening set 6–4, Ghibaudo battled back to defeat Williams. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Williams in the second set proved costly, and Ghibaudo seized control of the match, winning the second set 6–3 and the third 6–4.
Kentucky, just one win away from clinching the match, did not have an easy path against the Blue Devils. Loutit dropped the opening set 6–2 before responding with a 6–2 win in the second, but the deciding third set went down to the wire, with Loutit falling 7–3 in the tiebreak.
Duke continued to battle back as Rodenas earned a hard-fought victory over Arseneault. After Arseneault claimed the opening set 7–5, he was unable to convert in the second-set tiebreak, and Rodenas closed the match by taking the third set 6–2, pulling Duke back within one point.
Mikael sealed the match for the Wildcats with a decisive 6–1, 6–1 victory over Saahith Jayaraman. The win marked Mikael’s second straight meet clincher for Kentucky.
“It feels great, honestly, like the team has my back,” Mikael said. “I’m just there to do whatever I can to help them win. So yeah, it feels great.”
With the rivalry victory, the Wildcats extended their home winning streak to 32 matches and remained undefeated against the Cardinals, improving to 31–0 all-time.
“While they’re out there, we are starting to, we’re talking about this, and we had a, I think today was really for an hour, an hour and a half,” Kauffman said. It was the Wildcat team that we’re looking for, you know, four or five hours. So I was really, I think we just talked about this. We look like one of the best teams in the country first. Let’s debate all the time, and we’re just gonna have to do it for longer periods.”
