No. 4 Kentucky mens tennis squared off against Northern Kentucky this past Tuesday at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Center, with the Cats winning the match 6-1 to improve to 4-0 on the year.

Starting out the match for the Wildcats in doubles were the pairings of 2021 ITA National Player of the Year Liam Draxl and fifth-year senior Cornell transfer Alafia Ayeni. The duo took down NKU’s Bartosz Losiak and Josef Zapletal 6-1.

The next doubles matchup would pit two of Kentucky’s freshman, Charlelie Cosnet and Jaden Weekes, against Northern Kentucky’s Tom Berry and Vincent Knott. The duo would go on to take the game 6-3.

The final court of the doubles matchups saw senior Taha Baadi and freshman Cristophe Clement also take a 6-2 win, allowing Kentucky to take a 1-0 lead against NKU with the overall doubles point.

Next up would come singles, which saw Draxl down Brandon Ponomarew 6-1 and 2-0, with the latter match being retired, for the first singles win for Kentucky. Shortly after, junior Joshua Lapadat swiftly handled his opponent Tom Berry a sweeping loss as well, winning 6-0 and 6-2.

With two singles points already secured by the Cats, Weekes would look to take a match himself. His first match saw him win 6-2 while the second match proved a bit tougher, with Weekes narrowly being able to edge out his opponent for the 7-6 (2) win.

Northern Kentucky’s first and only point of the day would come when Zapletal took down Kentucky’s Clement by two matching scores of 6-4.

NKU’s successes did not last long, however, as Cosnet followed with another blue and white victory over the Norse, winning 7-5 and 6-1.

The last match of the day took place between Kentucky’s JJ Mercer and NKU’s Vincent Knott. Mercer let up only one point during the course of the match, putting up scores of 6-0 and 6-1 to clinch the game for Kentucky.

The Cats will look to continue their success on the court as they host the Liberty Flames in the opening round of the ITA Kickoff Weekend on Friday, Jan. 27. The match will take place at the Hilary J. Boone Center and is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. EST.