Carolina Sweeps No. 40 Kentucky

COLUMBIA, S.C.- With four straight-set wins in singles play and a decisive doubles point victory, No. 32 South Carolina men’s tennis (12-5, 2-4) returned to form on Thursday night in a 7-0 sweep over No. 40 Kentucky (9-9, 3-3 SEC) at the Carolina Tennis Center.

“We just chose to be resilient (tonight). We actually played some pretty good tennis (at Tennessee and Georgia) we just made some mistakes that cost us last weekend,” said head coach Josh Goffi.  “The goal today was to be tough and we accomplished that.”

The Gamecocks battled through some minor rough patches during the doubles point to emerge with a 1-0 lead after wins from the No. 1 and No. 3 pairings. 

South Carolina later had first-set wins on four of six courts to begin the singles sessions, swiftly closing out straight-set wins on courts four, six and one, respectively, to clinch the team victory.

Having already locked up its 15th home win over the last 16 matches at the Carolina Tennis Center, South Carolina finished the night with three more singles wins as Beau Pelletier won a second-set tiebreak to finish off his match on court five, which was followed by third-set victories from Raphael Lambling and Daniel Rodrigues.

South Carolina has now swept five opponents at home this season and improves to 10-1 overall at the Carolina Tennis Center. The 7-0 win was the first sweep for the Gamecocks over and SEC opponent since blanking Vanderbilt 4-0 back in 2013.

DOUBLES
Paul Jubb and Raphael Lambling, who broke into the ITA doubles rankings for the first time this season at No. 63 this week, never trailed in their dominant 6-1 win over Cesar Bourgois and Theo McDonald. 

Pelletier and Rodrigues missed their initial chances to clinch the point after leading 5-2, but eventually finished the match off holding serve to win 6-4.

Doubles Results
1. No. 63 Paul Jubb/Raphael Lambling (SC) def. Cesar Bourgois/Theo McDonald (UK), 6-1
2. Ryo Matsumura/Kento Yamada (UK) vs. Joseph Brailovsky/Jake Beasley (SC), 6-6 unfinished
3. Beau Pelletier/Daniel Rodrigues (SC) def. Enzo Wallart/Ying-Ze Chen (UK), 6-4
Order of finish: 1,3

SINGLES
Jubb, the fifth-ranked singles player in the nation in this week’s ITA Top-125, improved to 11-1 in dual matches this season.  Jubb has now won three-straight and 10 of his last 11 with his only singles loss coming in a third-set tiebreak to the third-ranked singles player in the nation, Nuno Borges (Miss. State).

Jubb’s singles win proved to be the match clincher Thursday night after Joseph Brailovksy got on the board first with a quick 6-1, 6-3 win over Cesar Bourgois.  Thomas Brown grabbed his first SEC win of the season with a 6-4, 6-1 win on court six that put Carolina ahead 3-0.

Following Jubb’s clinching straight-set victory, Pelletier battled through his second-set tiebreak for a 7-5 win to put the Gamecocks up 5-0.  Lambling and Rodrigues put the finishing touches on the Gamecocks’ sweep as the freshman pair rode the Gamecocks’ momentum to finish off the 7-0 team win.

Singles Results
1. No. 5 Paul Jubb (SC) def. No. 36 Ryo Matsumura (UK) 6-3, 7-5
2. No. 93 Daniel Rodrigues (SC) def. No. 118 Enzo Wallart (UK), 2-6, 6-3, 6-4
3. Raphael Lambling (SC) def. Kento Yamada (UK) 3-6, 7-5, 1-0 (4)
4. Joseph Brailovsky (SC) def. Cesar Bourgois (UK), 6-1, 6-3
5. Beau Pelletier (SC) def. Kevin Huempfner (UK), 6-1, 7-6 (5)
6. Thomas Brown (SC) def. Parth Aggarwal (UK), 6-4, 6-1
Order of finish: 4,6,1*,5,3,2

UP NEXT
South Carolina will be back in action on Saturday as it hosts No. 28 Vanderbilt on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET.

For men’s tennis updates, continue to check back with GamecocksOnline.com or follow the team on social media (@GamecockMTennis).