The Louisville Cardinals men’s tennis team is set to kick off their spring season with four players ranked inside the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) top-125 singles rankings. Sophomore Natan Rodrigues leads the way at No. 25, marking the first top 25 showing by a Cardinal since 2014-15. Graduate student Fabien Salle enters at No. 36, while senior Etienne Donnet is No. 42 and senior Matthew Fung rounds out the ranked Cardinals at No. 61.
In doubles, the Cardinals also have two pairs slotted in the ITA top 60 rankings. Salle and Rodrigues have launched into the top 10 at No. 9, after appearing at No. 48 in the preseason polls. David Mizrahi and Will Mayew secured the No. 58 spot after a strong showing in the fall season.
The Cardinals posted a 19-9 overall record in the 2021-22 season while finishing 9-3 in ACC play. They were able to reach their first ACC semifinal since joining the conference in 2014-2015 and made the program’s 13th NCAA tournament appearance. The team returns six letter winners from a season ago, including Donnet who was an All-ACC first-team selection and played a majority of the season at the No. 1 spot.
In their first match of the spring season, the Cardinals will take on UIC at 1 p.m. on January 18th. This will be the first meeting between the two teams. UIC finished the 2021-22 season with a 5-19 overall record and 2-6 in the Horizon League. They advanced to the semifinals of the conference tournament before being knocked out by No.1-seeded Youngstown State, 1-4.
Later on the same day, the Cardinals will take on Bellarmine at 5 p.m. Louisville leads the series 29-10 and defeated Bellarmine 7-0 at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center in their last meeting on January 18, 2022. Bellarmine finished the 2021-22 season with a 5-15 overall record and 1-7 in the ASUN. All of the Knights’ wins came in home matches, finishing 5-6 while ending the season 0-8 in road matches. Bellarmine ended the 2021-22 season on a seven-match losing streak.
Louisville will remain home for another doubleheader on Sunday at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center. The Cards will take on Northwestern at 12 p.m. followed by Eastern Kentucky at 5 p.m.