Sept. 17, 2004

Three returning Fighting Illini men's tennis players and two freshmen kicked off the 2004-05 season today at the Napa Valley Tennis Classic at Meadowood in St. Helena, Calif., where they took five of their seven matches. The round robin tournament has a power house field as Georgia (No. 6 in last year's final poll), Texas A&M (No. 19) and host California (No. 30) join Illinois for the three day event.

Junior Ryler DeHeart, ranked 95th, returns to the Illini after a solid 29 victories a year ago. Today he was perfect winning both his singles and doubles matches. In singles he knocked off Daniel Sebescen from California 2-6, 7-5, 6-3. In doubles DeHeart teamed with GD Jones to topple Georgia's Ricardo Gonzales and Matic Omerzel, 8-6. Last season the duo started 16-0 together and is the highest ranked Illini pair at No. 17. Jones is coming off a successful summer season that saw him play in the Wimbledon, French Open and US Open Juniors tournaments. Today, however, Jones fell on the short end losing to BryanWooten of Texas A&M, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.

One of the newest Illini Monte Tucker, ranked 121st, started his collegiate career on the right foot as he took down California's Wallace in three sets 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-2. Evan Zeder ended his junior year with an 8-0 record during the spring season, but fell in his first match this year to Texas A&M's Marvin Rolle 7-6 (2), 6-4. It did not take long for Zeder to bounce back as he paired with Austin, Texas native Brandon Davis to beat California's duo of Ken Nakahara and John Pettit, 8-5.

Illinois will continue round robin action tomorrow with matches beginning at 9 a.m. pacific. To listen to tomorrow's action go to radiotennis.com.

September 17th Results

Singles Results:
No. 95 Ryler DeHeart (ILL) d. Daniel Sebescen (CAL)     2-6; 7-5; 6-3
No. 121 Monte Tucker (ILL) d. Dean Wallace (CAL)        6-7(5); 6-1; 6-3
Marvin Rolle (A&M) d. Evan Zeder (ILL)                  7-6(2); 6-4
Bryan Wooten (A&M) d. No. 111 GD Jones (ILL)            4-6; 6-1; 6-2

Doubles Results:
No. 17 Ryler DeHeart/GD Jones (ILL) d. Ricardo Gonzales/Matic Omerzel (UG)      8-6
Brandon Davis/Evan Zeder (ILL) d. Ken Nakahara/John Pettit        (CAL)     8-5