Match 15: Illinois at Wake Forest    

The No. 7 Fighting Illini men's tennis team travels to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for a Top-10 matchup against the No. 1 Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Tuesday afternoon at 3 pm CT. The Illini are currently riding a four-match winning streak and coming off a 10-day break from match play.    

Match Points 

• Illinois has not competed against Wake Forest since February 13, 1999. UI won the match, 7-0.
• The Illini are making their first trip to Winston-Salem since a 5-2 win on February 27, 1998.
• The last time UI defeated a No. 1-ranked opponent was on January 29, 2006 when No. 4 Illinois defeated No. 1 Virginia, 5-2 at Atkins Tennis Center. 
• The Demon Deacons are the 10th ITA-ranked opponent the Illini will face this season.      
• Wake Forest is the host site of the 2018 NCAA Tennis Championships in May. 

Freshmen Making an Impact for Orange and Blue 

Over the past three matches, Illini freshmen Alex Brown and Caleb Chakravarthi just keep winning: 

• 12-0 combined record in singles and doubles 
• Each currently on a four-match singles winning streak 
• Clinched three Illinois match wins 
• Clinched two Illini doubles points 
• Currently riding six-match doubles winning streak 

Brown Garners Second-Straight B1G Weekly Honor 

Freshman Alex Brown was named the Big Ten Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week for the second-straight week on March 13. The Urbandale, Iowa, native earned his third B1G weekly honor after a 4-0 week against Notre Dame and Northwestern. The three weekly honors matches the most by an Illinois freshman in program history. Former Illini All-American, Jared Hiltzik, garnered three B1G weekly honors during his freshman campaign in 2013, which is also the last time a conference freshman won three weekly awards in a single season. 

Sophomore Success: Kovacevic Rolling in 2018 

Sophomore Aleks Kovacevic has picked up right where he left off in 2018. The New York native is 8-1 in singles since February 2 at Duke. Aleks has won each of those matches in straight sets with three of them involving a tiebreaker. Kovacevic clinched the Illinois victories at Duke and against Florida.  

Vukic Reaches 100 Career Singles Wins 

Vukic earned his 100th career singles victory on March 2 against TCU's Trevor Johnson. Vukic grinded out a 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(4) win to become Illinois' 15th men's tennis player to reach 100 career singles wins and the first since former three-time All-American, Jared Hiltzik, in 2015. The Sydney, Australia native, won his first singles match at the Southern Intercollegiates in Athens, Georgia on September 12, 2014. Vukic bested Kennesaw State's Simon Pritchard, 6-3, 6-4. Over the next 1,268 days, Vukic won 99 more singles matches.

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