ITA Release

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Fighting Illini men's tennis junior Alex Brown has been named an ITA All-American for the 2019-20 season, as announced by the ITA today. Brown is one of 20 Division I men's singles players honored as All-Americans.

"Huge congratulations to AB," Illinois head coach Brad Dancer said. "In this time, I think the ITA did a great job of recognizing , from an individual standpoint, almost 75 percent of the season had been completed, and they felt it was fair to honor those who met the year-end criteria for All-American status. AB's play during the year warranted that selection. Most importantly, he has always been about the team and continuing to improve himself all the time, and that's what's going to be great for him going forward, is the chance to keep improving."

Brown highlighted his fall season with a trip to the semifinals of the Oracle ITA Masters in September, falling in three sets to fellow All-American Keegan Smith of UCLA. He followed his fall season with an appearance in the semifinal of the JSM Challenger in Urbana in November, the deepest run by an active Illini at the annual pro tournament at Atkins Tennis Center.

In the spring, Brown posted a 3-0 record at No. 1 singles, highlighted by a win over No. 5 Richard Ciamarra of Notre Dame on February 15. He finished the pandemic-shortened season ranked No. 15 in the ITA singles rankings after reaching a career high of No. 9 on February 18. He also began the fall with a career-high doubles ranking of No. 19 with senior Aleks Kovacevic.

Brown's All-American honor is the 35th bestowed upon an Illini since 1998. The 2019-20 season is the seventh straight in which at least one Illini has been named an All-American.