First Serve: Illini Return to Atkins Tennis Center   

The Illinois Fighting Illini return to the Atkins Tennis Center after five-straight road matches during the month of March. Illinois will welcome the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Nebraska Cornhuskers this weekend for two noon matchups. Sunday is Youth Tennis Day, where the Orange and Blue will host a free youth clinic following the completion of Illinois's match against Nebraska. The afternoon will also mark the return of Sundae Sundays, where free ice cream sundaes will be available at the match. 

Last Time Out: Illini Hand Badgers First Big Ten Loss

Fighting Illini men's tennis defeated the Wisconsin Badgers, 4-2 on April 2. Jesse and Kovacevic defeated Carranza and Dodridge, 6-3 at the No. 1 position. Freshmen Gomes and Clark clinched the point for Illinois with a 7-5 win on court three. Wisconsin had not lost a doubles point in their first 15 matches of the season.  In singles action, freshman Noe Khlif was the first off the court with a 6-2, 6-2 win on court six. Gomes put the Illini back on top with a win on court two. The freshman used a tiebreak and three sets to take the match, 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-1. Vukic clinched the Illinois win on court one after a hard-fought contest against Lamar Remy. Down, 5-3 in the third, Vukic came back to force a tiebreaker for the win. The junior took the tiebreak, 7-2 to seal the Illinois victory. Vukic extends his singles winning streak to 13 matches with the win.

Vukic Named Big Ten Tennis Player of the Week (AGAIN X2) 

Illinois junior Aleks Vukic was named the Big Ten Tennis Player of the Week on Monday, March 28. The Illini junior earned three singles victories over opponents ranked in the ITA Top 15. Vukic handed TCU's No. 3-ranked Cameron Norrie his first singles loss of the season with a 6-7(2), 6-3, 10-6 win on Wednesday night in Fort Worth. On Saturday, the Sydney, Australia native earned a 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 13 Florian Lakat of California. The No. 20-ranked Vukic dominated No. 15 Tom Fawcett at Stanford on Monday for a 6-3, 6-0 victory. Vukic is currently on an 11-match singles winning streak. In doubles, the junior teamed up with freshman Vuk Budic on Monday to defeat Stanford's No. 67-ranked pair of Genender and Kumar, 7-5. The honor is the third of the season for Vukic and fourth for the Illini men's tennis team. The Illini junior is the first player in the conference to garner the award three times this season.

Freshmen Focus 

The Fighting Illini opened the 2017 season with five freshmen in the starting lineup. Vuk Budic competed in doubles with junior Aleks Vukic. Gui Gomes, Zeke Clark, Aleks Kovacevic and Noe Khlif started on courts three through six in singles. With six freshmen, Illinois has the largest number of freshmen in the Big Ten and the only school in the conference to start five freshmen on opening day. 

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