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UK Tennis star Liam Draxl ranked No. 1 men's singles player, women's doubles also ranked No. 1

Zack Geogheganby:Zack Geoghegan04/14/21

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Liam-Draxl
<small>(UK Athletics)<small>
[caption id="attachment_347793" align="aligncenter" width="1440"] (UK Athletics)[/caption] At this point, Kentucky should just be known as a sports school. Adding to the seemingly endless list of competitions that the University excels in are men's and women's tennis. Liam Draxl, a star tennis player for the Wildcats, has ended the regular season as the top-ranked men's singles player across all of Division I, it was announced on Wednesday by the Oracle Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Now up to a 19-2 record on the year, the super-sophomore registered two of those victories over the weekend after taking down the No. 11 and No. 51 players in the country. Nine of his 19 wins have come against ranked opponents. Draxl is one of five total Kentucky tennis players who finished the regular season ranked by the Oracle ITA. According to UK, he has never lost a singles match at home during his short career with the team. https://twitter.com/UKMensTennis/status/1382468388077801472 As a team, Kentucky closes the regular season with a 17-5 record and a 7-5 mark in the Southeastern Conference. Along with Draxl, Gabriel Diallo (No. 21), Millen Hurrion (No. 43), César Bourgois (No. 97), and Joshua Lapadat (No. 114) also made the national rankings. Diallo jumped 10 spots, Hurrion moved up 17, and Bourgois made his debut in the rankings. Joining Draxl atop the rankings for the ladies were a pair of Wildcats, Akvile Paražinskaite and Fiona Arrese, who came in as the No. 1 Doubles pairing in the country, as well. Those two have posted an insane 19-1 record, which equals a nation-leading .950 win percentage. They recently beat No. 14 Mississippi State to claim the ITA's top spot. https://twitter.com/UKWomensTennis/status/1382444711827279873 With the SEC Tournament starting next week, Paražinskaite and Arrese could do something that has only been done by one other pairing in Kentucky program history: finish the season ranked No. 1. Mami Adachi and Aldila Sutjiadi were the first to pull this off, doing so back in 2016. In terms of individual rankings, Paražinskaite comes in at No. 45 while Lesedi Jacobs is No. 95 in singles.

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