Jan. 14, 2005

San Juan, Puerto Rico - The weather finally cooperated in San Juan on Friday as a full day of tennis took place at the Puerto Rico Invitational. The Illini faced off against No. 17 TCU in singles in the morning, and then took on Cal in singles in the afternoon before calling it a day after challenging Georgia Tech in doubles. The jam-packed day allowed the Illini to play 15 singles matches and three doubles. Tomorrow's competition will conclude with a singles session with Cal and a doubles session against either Cal or TCU.

"First of all, it was just great to play tennis today," Associate head coach Brad Dancer said. "Craig and I are very pleased how we competed at the end of the day in doubles after being out there all day. We had some matches where some guys didn't hit the ball that well, but these are early season matches and the guys really competed well and stayed composed which were along the lines of what are goals were for today."

The morning session saw junior Ryler DeHeart, who was coming in with an 18-1 start from the fall, come up short in his first match of the spring to TCU's top player Fabrizio Sestini 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. Junior Pramod Dabir came away a winner against Jordan Freitas 6-4, 6-4. Freshmen Kevin Anderson and Monte Tucker both rolled to victory for their first of the spring winning 6-1, 6-4 and 6-2, 7-6 (4) over Jacopo Tezza and Rafael Abreu respectively. Senior Evan Zeder also joined the fun as he topped Andrew Ulrich 6-3, 6-2.

In the afternoon, DeHeart battled back after his first loss since October with a tough win against Lennart Maack of Cal 7-5, 6-3. The freshmen duo of Anderson and Tucker were the only other two Illini to win in singles in the afternoon against Cal as Anderson defeated Tyler Browne 7-5, 7-6 (2) and Tucker bested Ken Nakahara 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles at the end of the day was a battle of the heart and mind as everyone was nearly drained from the daylong play in the beating Puerto Rican sun. However, the battle was easier than expected for the Orange and Blue as they pasted the Yellow Jackets in three matches by a combined score of 24-10. DeHeart and Zeder first took out David North and Zachary Rath 8-2. Then the duo's of Anderson/Dabir and Tucker/Murnighan dispatched Jose Muguruza/Sukhwa Young and Marco Rajevac/Scott Blackmon both 8-4.

Today's Results
Singles:
Fabrizio Sestini (TCU) def. Ryler DeHeart (Ill) 3-6,6-3,7-5
Pramod Dabir (Ill) def. Jordan Freitas (TCU) 6-4,6-4
Kevin Anderson (Ill) def. Jacopo Tezza (TCU) 6-1,6-4
Monte Tucker (Ill) def. Rafael Abreu (TCU) 6-2,7-6(4)
Jacob Martin (TCU) def. Ruben Gonzales (Ill) 4-6,7-6(5),6-3
Evan Zeder (Ill) def. Andrew Ulrich (TCU) 6-3,6-2
Jirou Nakajima (Cal) def. Brandon Davis (Ill) 7-6(4),7-6(0)
Noah Tyler (GT) def. Conner Murnighan (Ill) 3-6,7-6(6),7-6(7)

Ryler DeHeart (Ill) def. Lennart Maack (Cal) 7-5,6-3
Daniel Sebescen (Cal) def. Pramod Dabir (Ill) 6-3,2-6,7-5
Patrick Briaud (Cal) def. Evan Zeder (Ill) 6-3,6-4
Kevin Anderson (Ill) def. Tyler Browne (Cal) 7-5,7-6(2)
Monte Tucker (Ill) def. Ken Nakahara (Cal) 6-3,6-3
Scott Blackmon (GT) def. Brandon Davis (Ill) 7-6(2),6-4
John Pettit (Cal) def. Conner Murnighan (Ill) 6-3,6-3

Doubles:
DeHeart/Zeder (Ill) def. Rath/North (GT) 8-2
Anderson/Dabir (Ill) def. Muguruza/Young (GT) 8-4
Tucker/Murnighan (Ill) def. Rajevac/Blackmon (GT) 8-4