CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – From west coast to east coast, the Fighting Illini Men's Tennis program open up the fall season starting Thursday. Juniors Aleks Kovacevic and Zeke Clark will represent the orange and blue at the fourth annual ITA Oracle Masters hosted by Pepperdine and the Malibu Racquet Club in Malibu, Calif.
Both are scheduled to play at Pepperdine's Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center. Kovacevic and Clark will start things off in the mixed doubles at 8 a.m. No. 4 seed Kovacevic and partner Michigan's Giulia Pairone will face No. 29 seed Lorenzo Fucile (Grand Canyon) / Dominique Vasile (Quinnipiac). The No. 9 seed pair of Clark and Sara Daavettila (UNC) will face No. 24 seed Matt Kuhar (Bryant) / Anna Grigoryan (LIU Brooklyn).
In singles, No. 3 seed Kovacevic faces No. 30 seed Ion Efrim of Alabama State at 1:30 p.m. At the same time, No. 4 seed Clark will take on No. 29 seed Gabriel Evans of UIW.
The Oracle ITA Masters men's and women's singles champions earn automatic entry into the 2018 Oracle ITA National Fall Championships, which will be held November 7-11, in Surprise, Ariz.
Staying in the Midwest, a quartet of Illinois men's tennis players will take the court at the Milwaukee Classic in Milwaukee, Wis. Junior Noe Khlif, redshirt sophomore Gui Gomes, sophomore Fletcher Scott, and freshman Keenan Mayo will be looking to join the main draw.
Held at The Town Club, singles qualifying play will begin Thursday at 8 a.m. CT. Opening the tournament for the Illini, Gomes will face Joseph Schrader from North Carolina State. At 10 a.m. CT, No. 12 seed Mayo will represent the orange and blue against Can Kaya of California.
In the afternoon, Scott will face No. 7 Edson Ortiz of Alabama, at 1:15 p.m. CT. No. 16 seed Khlif will be playing against Sam Tullis of BYU at 1:45 p.m. Illinois will conclude with doubles play at 4 p.m. CT when Gui Gomes / Noe Khlif take on No. 8 seed Sean Hill / Jeffrey Hsu of BYU.
Main draw matches start Friday and continue through Sunday, Sept. 23. A total of 32 players will compromise the main draw.
On the east coast, another Illinois foursome will begin play Friday at the Ivy Plus Invitational hosted by Princeton University in Princeton, N.J. Junior Vuk Budic, Sophomore duo Alex Brown and Caleb Chakravarthi, and freshman Lucas Horve will represent the orange and blue in singles and doubles matches.
Draw for the Ivy Plus Invitational will be released Thursday night and updated here.
Rankings
Four Illini are ranked nationally entering the fall season. Dynamic sophomore duo Brown and Chakravarthi ring in at No. 25 in doubles play, while Brown is also ranked No. 50 in the singles. Juniors Kovacevic and Clark also start their junior campaign at No. 94 and 96, respectively.
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