Former Vol Hensel pulls Challenger upset

Kaden Hensel didn't let a gift from his friend go to waste Tuesday afternoon.

Hensel, former No. 1 player for the University of Tennessee, upset No. 4 seed Kevin Kim 6-0, 7-6 (2) in the first round of the $50,000 Knoxville Challenger at UT's Goodfriend Tennis Center.

Hensel, who finished his UT career in 2008, was given a wild-card entry into the main draw by his friend and former Vol teammate, J.P. Smith.

That meant Hensel, ranked No. 517 in the world, didn't have to qualify.

"(Smith) was initially going to play," Hensel said. "We talked about it. He'd played a lot of tennis and had some schoolwork, and I really wanted to play. He was kind enough to help me out."

Smith is playing doubles in the Knoxville Challenger. He and Davey Sandgren beat Kim and Prakash Armitraj in Monday's first round of doubles.

Smith and Hensel are both from Queensland, Australia.

"He's a good guy," Hensel said. "We're pretty close."

Hensel's victory was perhaps the biggest of his pro career. Kim won the Challenger event in Charlottesville, Va., last week - winning the final Sunday - and was ranked No. 87 in the world.

Kim, who lives in Torrance, Calif., was runner-up in the 2007 Knoxville Challenger.

"I played really well," Hensel said. "You could see he was a little flat in the first set so I just made him hit a lot of balls and he was trying to out-hit me, and it didn't work, so I got the first set quite easily, and then he changed his game and stepped it up a notch."

Hensel was down a break of serve in the second set and rallied to tie at 5-all. "I came up with some good points in the tiebreaker, and that's all it was," Hensel said.

In a feature match Tuesday night, third-seeded Taylor Dent of Bradenton, Fla., beat Atlanta's Scoville Jenkins 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-2 in a first-round match.

"The first set I can't really criticize too much about what I did," Dent said. "I was holding serves. He was playing some great service games. He was hitting a lot of big first serves in. Not only that, once he got his teeth in the point, baseline points, he was hitting his forehand and backhand so big and hitting it right next to the line."

Dent, ranked No. 104, is making a comeback from a back injury. His highest ranking was No. 21 in 2005. By the third set Tuesday, Dent looked a lot like his old self.

"Any time I serve well, it feels good," he said. "I've got one of the bigger serves in the game and if it's going in and going where I want it to go it's pretty rough to break me. That's the way it felt in the third set. I was hitting a lot of first serves in and my second serves were going big and accurate, so it was fun."

In a mild upset Tuesday, Atlanta's Donald Young defeated No. 5 seed Jesse Levine 6-3, 6-4. Levine was ranked No. 109 entering the Knoxville Challenger.

Young, 20, ranked No. 206, has posted some solid results since turning pro in 2004. He became the youngest player ever to reach a top-100 ranking in 2007 when he was 18, and he reached a career-high No. 73 in April of 2008. He reached the third round of the 2007 U.S. Open.

Top-seeded Wayne Odesnik defeated Vince Spadea, 7-5, 7-6, late Tuesday night.

Dave Link is a freelance contributor.