Tournament Central | Singles Main Draw | Doubles Main Draw

FLUSHING, N.Y. - The Fighting Illini men's tennis team wrapped up day one at the ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships on Thursday.

No. 2 ranked Tim Kopinski and Ross Guignon entered the tournament unseeded in the 20-team doubles main draw. Receiving a first round bye, the duo faced off against Shane/Corintelli (UVA) in their first match of the tournament. Guignon and Kopinski cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 victory to move to the quarterfinals. On Friday, Kopinski and Guignon will face the winner of Gregurovic/Ostojic (Wichita State) and No. 4 seed N. Chappell/W. Stein (TCU).

"Tim and Ross played one of the cleaner doubles matches I've seen this fall," assistant coach Marcos Asse said. "When they took the court for practice right off the plane, you could tell they were moving and seeing things how they normally do but the execution wasn't there. Clearly, that practice got the travel bugs out of their systems. It was good to see Ross return well like I expect from him. Both he and Tim are capable of playing even better, which is exciting, but this was a great match to start the tournament."

In the singles draw, which consisted of the top players in the country representing 26 different colleges and universities, No. 6 ranked Jared Hiltzik entered the tournament unseeded in the 32-player draw. Hiltzik was knocked out in the first round by Ryan Shane of Virginia 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-3. The junior saw notable success in this tournament last season when he became the fifth Illini ever to reach the ITA National Indoor Championship final.

"Today was disappointing for Jared because he didn't lose playing his game," Asse said. "That can be a little harder to stomach. I have no doubt that he will find his game and I believe it's only one match away. Tomorrow is another opportunity to start playing like Jared Hiltzik again."

For the fifth straight year the tournament will be hosted by Columbia University with the action planned to transpire from November 6-9 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.