Oct. 29, 2001

The Fighting Illini men's tennis team today completed a very strong performance at the Omni Hotels/ITA Midwest Regional Tournament at East Lansing, Mich. Sophomores Amer Delic and Michael Calkins won the doubles title, but Delic had to retire from the singles championship match in the third set after injuring his right (hitting) hand.

Illinois, ranked No. 1 in the region going into the competition, should hold onto that spot after winning 13 of its first 15 matches in the tournament and sending players into both the singles and doubles championship matches.

It was a particularly grueling day for Delic, who holds down the nation's No. 88 ranking. This morning he outlasted No. 22 Harsh Mankad of Minnesota, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (6), 7-6 (2) in a semi-final singles match that lasted three hours. Shortly thereafter, he and Calkins, ranked No. 14, teamed up to defeat Louisville's unranked Cody Conley and Joachim Lien, 8-5.

It was then that Delic engaged in another marathon battle, this time in the singles championship match against Danny Westerman of Wisconsin. Westerman took the first set, 7-6 (5), and Delic returned the favor with a 7-6 (9) triumph in the second set. With tie-breakers in not only the first two sets, but also the deciding third set, the match could not have been much closer. It was with Westerman leading the tiebreaker, 6-6 (3-0), that Delic injured his right hand and had to bow out.

"We're extremely disappointed that Amer was injured," said UI Head Coach Craig Tiley. "It will very likely prevent him from competing in the indoor nationals in two weeks, and we're concerned that he may be out of action for an extended period of time. We'll have him checked out by our orthopedic physician tomorrow."

Delic was slowed by a broken left wrist last winter. Though he sustained that injury during December, between Illinois' fall individual and spring team seasons, he didn't regain his form until late spring. After winning last year's regional doubles title, he and former Illini Graydon Oliver advanced as far as the Elite Eight in the NCAA Doubles Tournament.

"Amer was clearly our best singles player, and he and Michael played the best of any of our doubles teams," said Tiley," so it's particularly disappointing that they won't be able to compete in the upcoming indoor nationals. But I was extremely pleased with all of our players in this tournament. I saw a great deal of improvement in their play from earlier this fall. "We'll just have to deal with whatever adversity that we face," Tiley concluded.