Men’s Tennis Central: #14 Tennessee vs. #4 Kentucky

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Riding a three-match winning streak, the 14th-ranked Tennessee men's tennis team enters Sunday's Senior Day contest against No. 4 Kentucky having won six of its last seven matches. First serve is slated for 1 p.m. ET at Barksdale Stadium.

Senior Day presentations begin at 12:25 p.m. Tennessee's five graduate students—Pat Harper, Emile Hudd, Boris Kozlov, Martim Prata and Tomas Rodriguez—are set to be honored on court one prior to Sunday's match.

Live stats will be provided by UTsports.com and can be found here. Live streaming is available for free through Playsight here.

Admission is free and complimentary tennis parking is located in SC40 at the Kingston Pike Building. Additional parking information can be found here.

For outdoor matches at Barksdale Stadium this season, concessions and alcoholic beverages will be sold on the concourse, at the top of the grandstand behind court two. More information on Tennessee's enhanced fan experience efforts can be found here.

The first 100 fans in attendance Sunday will receive a free Tennessee Tennis shirt and a concession voucher.

Please be aware of road closures in place for this Sunday's match due to the Knoxville Marathon. A map of the marathon—which may impact traffic flow on campus—can be found here.

LAST TIME OUT
Tennessee took down No. 12 Mississippi State at home Friday evening, 5-2.

SCOUTING KENTUCKY
Tennessee (15-6, 5-2 SEC) and Kentucky (19-3, 7-2 SEC), write the 115th chapter in a strong rivalry Sunday. The Vols lead the Wildcats, 67-47, all-time in a series that dates to 1930 and have won four of the past five meetings.

Kentucky won each of its first 12 matches this season, before falling to TCU in the ITA National Indoor Championship semifinals, 4-2, and to South Carolina at home in its SEC opener, 4-3. The Wildcats won seven straight matches following that two-match skid, before falling at No. 8 Georgia Friday, 5-2.

Three of the past four matches in the series have been 4-3 decisions, with Tennessee taking tight battles in 2018 and 2021 and Kentucky narrowly edging the Vols in 2022.

VOLS IN THE RANKINGS
Singles
#2 – Johannus Monday
#57 – Emile Hudd
#122 – Shunsuke Mitsui

Doubles
#2 – Pat Harper/Johannus Monday
#60 – Emile Hudd/Shunsuke Mitsui

WILDCATS IN THE RANKINGS
Singles
#22 – Liam Draxl
#27 – Alafia Ayeni
#44 – Joshua Lapadat

Doubles
#25 – Alafia Ayeni/Taha Baadi
#38 – Joshua Lapadat/JJ Mercer

CLINCHING AND CLINCHING AND CLINCHING
• Shunsuke Mitsui's clinch Friday over Mississippi State marked his third consecutive match clinching for the Vols. Each of those singles wins are at the No. 4 slot, a position where the sophomore is 7-1 (6-1 SEC) this dual season. Overall this year, Mitsui leads the team with four clinches.

TOP-FIVE FOE IN KNOXVILLE
• Tennessee's last home win over a top-five opponent came against No. 3 Georgia, 4-3, on April 12, 2008, albeit only having five such matches since that victory. The Vols were ranked No. 10 in that matchup.

DUBS DUBS
• Tennessee's dual doubles record over the past three seasons is 148-59 (.715). In 21 matches this year, UT has won the doubles point 19 times and in its 87 matches since the start of the 2021 dual season, Tennessee has won the doubles point 68 times for a .782 clip in that span.

JO MOMENTUM
• Johannus Monday, a two-time ITA Singles All-American, is a combined 30-3 in dual singles and doubles matches this spring. At 15-1 in singles and 15-2 on the doubles courts, 24 of those 30 total victories are at the No. 1 lineup spot (12-1 at No. 1 singles and 12-2 at No. 1 doubles). Monday is the nation's lone player to be ranked inside the ITA's top two in both singles (2) and doubles (2).

HUDD EYES THE CENTURY MARK
• With his doubles win with Shunsuke Mitsui vs. Mississippi State Friday, Emile Hudd collected the 94th overall doubles win of his career. Over half of those wins (51-of-94) have come in Tennessee orange. Hudd earned 43 doubles victories while playing at Oklahoma State.

LIVING IN THE RANKINGS
• With the ITA's March 21 update of its singles and doubles rankings, Tennessee has had either a top-10 singles acclaim or a top-10 doubles pair in 20 of the past 21 dual-season rankings updates, dating to March 24, 2021. The Vols not only have each this week, but a pair of top-three rankings with Monday coming in at a career-best No. 2 singles ranking and the duo of Monday and Pat Harper earning a career-high doubles ranking as a pairing, at No. 2.

HISTORY IN SIGHT
• Harper, with 91 career overall doubles wins at Tennessee, is four wins away from cracking the top 10 on the program's all-time doubles wins list. Should he reach 100 career doubles wins by season's end, he would become just the ninth Vol to ever do so in a career.

QUICK HITTERS
• Since the start of the 2019 dual season, Tennessee has racked up 11 top-10 wins, including seven top-five triumphs.
• Tennessee boasts a 53-5 (.914) record at home since the beginning of the 2020 dual season, including a 12-1 home mark in 2023.
• At 14-3 (5-2 SEC) in dual singles matches this season, Angel Diaz is one win shy of his 2021-22 overall singles win total, 24. He is 7-2 at the No. 5 singles spot this spring and including fall action, is 23-9 on the singles courts in 2022-23.
• Tennessee's current three-match winning streak includes wins over two top-12 teams.

UP NEXT
Tennessee goes on the road to face a pair of top-20 foes in No. 19 Florida Friday and No. 6 South Carolina Sunday.

For the most up-to-date information about the program, follow Tennessee men's tennis on Twitter and Instagram and like us on Facebook.

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Players Mentioned

Angel Diaz

Pat Harper

Emile Hudd

Boris Kozlov

Shunsuke Mitsui

Johannus Monday

Martim Prata

Tomas Rodriguez

University of Tennessee Athletics