Match 13: Illinois vs. Notre Dame  

The No. 6 Fighting Illini men's tennis team completes a three-match homestand with the No. 19 Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Wednesday night at 6 pm. The Illini went 2-0 over the weekend, besting TCU, 5-2 on Friday, and defending NCAA Champion, Virginia, 4-3 on Sunday. Freshman Alex Brown clinched both matches against ITA Top-30 opponents. The Illini are up to their highest team ranking since ending the 2015 season at No. 6. 

Match Points

• Illinois is currently riding a five-match winning streak against the Fighting Irish. The Orange and Blue have not lost to Notre Dame in Urbana since March 7, 2002 (Nine matches). 

• Wednesday's match will be the first Top-25 matchup between the Illini and Fighting Irish since No. 22 Illinois took on No. 16 Notre Dame in Urbana on February 5, 2014.

• The Fightiing Irish are the Illini's ninth ITA-ranked opponent in 2018.

• Notre Dame is Illinois' third match during a seven-day stretch where Illinois has three home matches and then travels to Northwestern on Friday for UI's Big Ten opener.  

Vukic Reaches 100 Career Singles Wins 

Fighting Illini senior Aleks Vukic earned his 100th career singles victory on Friday night 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.

Freshmen Producing for Orange and Blue  

Freshmen Alex Brown and Caleb Chakravarthi are coming off a combined 6-0 weekend at the Atkins Tennis Center. Brown defeated two ITA-ranked opponents to clinch both of the Illini's wins against TCU and Virginia. Chakravarthi returned to the singles lineup and went a perfect 2-0 in the No. 6 position. In doubles play, the freshman duo are on a four-match winning streak with a 10-2 record in dual match doubles play. Brown and Chakravarthi clinched the doubles point against Virginia on Sunday and have clinched a team-leading four doubles points. 

Sophomore Success: Kovacevic Rolling in 2018 

Sophomore Aleks Kovacevic has picked up right where he left off in 2018. The New York native is 7-1 in singles since February 2 at Duke. Kovacevic has won each of those matches in straight sets with three of them involving a tiebreaker. The victories at Duke and against Florida clinched the match for UI. 

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