By Riley Vance —

The University of Louisville’s men’s tennis team (4-1) lost their first match of the season (4-2) to the No. 19 ranked Kentucky Wildcats (10-1) on Sunday, Feb. 14 at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center.

The Cards started off strong by securing the doubles point with wins on courts one and three.

Junior Fabien Salle and sophomore Matthew Fung defeated Kentucky’s Cesar Bourgois and Gabriel Diallo 6-3 at the No. 1 spot.

To clinch the doubles point, juniors Alex Wesbrooks and Josh Howard-Tripp took down Yasha Zemel and Ying-Ze Chen (6-4) at the No. 3 spot.

Louisville took their winning momentum into singles as junior Sergio Hernandez secured an impressive 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 123 ranked Joshua Lapadat.

Kentucky fought back on courts two and three to even out the overall score to 2-2.

Salle fell 7-5, 6-2 to Diallo, and Howard-Tripp fell 6-1, 7-5 to Bourgois.

On court one No. 71 ranked senior Tin Chen lost a hard-fought match (6-4, 7-5) against Kentucky’s No. 45 ranked Liam Draxl to give the Wildcats a 3-2 lead.

The fate of the Card’s fell into the hands of Fung and Wesbrooks on courts five and six.

Fung came up short in the third set (4-6, 6-3, 4-6) and Kentucky’s Zemel secured the win for the Wildcats.

Wesbrooks was battling in the third set when the match was called (6-7, 6-4, 4-2).

Men’s tennis travels to North Carolina next weekend to take on NC State (2-3) on Friday, Feb. 19 at 4 p.m. at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center.

Singles

  1. #45 Liam Draxl (UK) def. #71 Tin Chen (LOU) 6-4, 7-5
  2. Gabriel Diallo (UK) def. Fabien Salle (LOU) 7-5, 6-2
  3. Sergio Hernandez (LOU) def. Joshua Lapadat (UK) 6-4, 6-4
  4. Cesar Bourgois (UK) def. Josh Howard-Tripp (LOU) 6-1, 7-5
  5. Yasha Zemel (UK) def. Matthew Fung (LOU) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4
  6. #114 Alexandre Leblanc (UK) vs. Alex Wesbrooks (LOU) 7-6, 6-4, 4-2, unfinished

Doubles

  1. Fabien Salle/Matthew Fung (LOU) def. Cesar Bourgois/Gabriel Diallo (UK) 6-3
  2. Liam Draxl/Alexandre Leblanc (UK) vs. Tin Chen/Sergio Hernandez (LOU) 4-4, unfinished
  3. Alex Wesbrooks/Josh Howard-Tripp (LOU) def. Yasha Zemel/Ying-Ze Chen (UK) 6-4

File Photo // The Louisville Cardinal