By Jim Durham, Lexington Challenger Media Director
Lexington, KY (July 16) – The Hillary J. Boone Tennis Center – home of the Kentucky Wildcats – is hallowed Southeastern Conference ground. But Saturday, a Big Ten match-up commanded the Lexington Challenger spotlight on the first day of men’s qualifying as Minnesota’s Phillip Arndt of Lancaster (KY) upset Dennis Nevolo, the top man at Illinois, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.
“My volleys were doing really well…and I was solid all the way. Hopefully, I do that again (Sunday),” said Arndt, who faces qualies top seed Blake Strode at approximately 11:30 a.m. A former Arkansas Razorback star, Strode won last year’s Wild Card Tournament to get into the U.S. Open qualifier.
A pair of UK men – Brad Cox and Maks Gold won in straight sets and face seeds at 10 a.m. Cox, the No. 3 Cat, faces Ohio State top gun Chase Buchanan (the 8th seed); Gold has Japan’s Bumpei Sato (6). The top four qualies seeds, who all received byes, will see their first action in the morning as well.
The first round of women’s qualifying begins at 1 p.m. with matches on seven courts. Local wild cards Samantha Maddox and Megan Broderick are second and third match on, respectively, against a couple of rising high school juniors. The two-time Kentucky state high school champ for Lexington Catholic, Maddox faces Nicole Robinson of West Palm Beach, FL; UK’s top player the past four seasons, Broderick has Angela Assal of Bronx, NY.
Cox, the just graduated senior captain of a UK team that reached the NCAA quarterfinals, is looking forward to following his younger brother Jordan – the qualies No. 2 seed – on the pro circuit as coach, confidant and sometimes doubles partner. This week, however, Brad Cox plans to team with regular Wildcat teammate Eric Quigley – a duo invited to the NCAA doubles tourney last month.
As a player, Cox said “I still need to work on my return of serve and my movement.” That showed in his 6-4, 7-6 (4) win over UK teammate Ryuji Hirooka of Japan. As his brother’s coach, he hopes “to help Jordan mentally. He has the shots, he just needs to get his (mental) game together.”
Arndt, who plays 3 or 4 for Minnesota, plans to finish his degree in Business and Marketing but turn professional next summer. After the Lexington Challenger, he’ll play $10K Futures events in Godfrey and Decatur, IL. Then, Aug. 8 he’s off to China for three weeks with Team USA. “I’m really excited…it’s sort of the college Olympics,” said the 2008 Garrard County High graduated.
Also of local interest: 2009 NCAA champ Devin Britton, who has trained the past year here with Lexington Tennis Club pro Jeff Morrison (the ’99 NCAA champ, Florida) advanced; Lexington Catholic graduate Austin Akers, who plays at Wisconsin for former UK great Greg Van Emburgh, fell in the first round.
