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Vaught's Views: Area has ties to UK tennis

May 09, 2005|LARRY VAUGHT

While this area is known more for its high school football than it likely ever will be for high school tennis, there are area ties to the successful University of Kentucky tennis program that is growing into one of the nation's best.

Last week Jesse Witten earned his fourth straight selection to the NCAA singles championships as a No. 3 seed. Since he'll also be a No. 4 seed in the doubles field of 32 with partner Tigran Martirosyan, he will become UK's first five-time tennis All-American. He's part of UK's first All-America doubles team since 1993.

Witten lost in the 2002 NCAA singles final as an unheralded freshman. The last two years he's lost to Stanford's K.C. Corkery in earlier rounds, but this season he could be one of the players to beat when the tourney starts May 25 at Texas A&M.

He's from Naples, Fla., but his uncle, Richard Witten, lives in Danville. Richard Witten's son, Chris, is the mainstay of the Danville baseball team's pitching staff, but his daughter, CeCe, plays No. 1 singles for Boyle County's tennis team even though she's only in the sixth grade. She started last year as Boyle's No. 6 player before climbing to No. 2 and this year has improved even more.

And yes, CeCe Witten has been known to hit a tennis ball or two with her cousin in Lexington.

The Kentucky women are sending five players to the NCAA singles and doubles competition May 23-28 at Georgia.

Joining senior All-American Aibika Kalsarieva, who automatically qualified for the singles championships as one of the top four players in the south region, as a two-time NCAA singles participant will be sophomore Sarah Foster.

She was the Southeast Region Rookie of the Year in 2004 and was 7-4 in Southeastern Conference play this season with wins over 13th-ranked Zerene Reyes of Florida, 15th-ranked Mihaela Moldovan of Florida State and 59th-ranked Romy Farah of Clemson.

Kalsarieva and Foster will play doubles together at the NCAA for the second straight year and are ranked No. 7 after going 26-9 this season. That's a high enough ranking to earn All-America honors for both players.

The Hopewells are her cousins

Foster's cousins are Dan and Andrew Hopewell of Burgin. Foster's mother and the Hopewells' mother are sisters. Foster's sister, Emily, also plays tennis for Kentucky while Andrew Hopewell is on UK's football team.

"The sports are two extremes, but in our family, it works," Foster, a singles and doubles state champion at Lexington Christian, said. "Our grandfather has gone to football games for 40 years, but he also started both of our mothers playing tennis. Our whole family love both sports. Both of our dads played football at UK football and married two sisters who love tennis.

"We do come from an athletic family. It's just the boys play football and the girls play tennis. We have a passion for these two sports."

"I really do like watching them," Andrew Hopewell said of his cousins. "They are so good. I have played tennis with my cousins before. Sarah and I used to go to the courts before her freshman season and hit. She always took it easy on me, but if I got a little cocky, she would put me back in my place."

Both Kentucky teams will host NCAA regionals this weekend. The women will play Marshall Friday at 2 p.m. and if they win would take on the Indiana-Wake Forest winner Saturday at 3 p.m.

If you like big-time tennis, then this is your chance to see it. But just remember that this big-time tennis does have at least a little local flavor thrown in to make it a bit more interesting.

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