Big Ten Release

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Senior Aleks Kovacevic, junior Alex Brown, and sophomore Siphosothando Montsi have been named to the Men's Tennis All-Big Ten teams, as announced by the conference today. Brown and Kovacevc were named to the First Team, and Montsi was named to the Second Team. Brown was a unanimous First Team selection.

Brown earns his third straight First Team All-Big Ten honors in addition to his first career ITA All-American honors this season. The Urbandale, Iowa, native was undefeated in Big Ten play in 2019-20. He reached the semifinals of the Oracle ITA Masters in the fall and faced stiff competition all season, as 17 of his 21 singles opponents were ranked nationally. Brown reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 9 in the spring, boosted by a victory over No. 5 Richard Ciamarra of Notre Dame. 

Kovacevic had a successful 2019-20 campaign in all facets of tennis, leading Team USA to the championship at the Master'U BNP Paribas collegiate tournament and reaching the semifinal of the Legacy National Bank NWA Tennis Series and the quarterfinal of the Knoxville Challenger. He also avenged his loss in the 2019 NCAA Singles semifinal with a straight-sets victory over defending national champion Paul Jubb of South Carolina at the MLK Invitational in January. Kovacevic and Brown earned a career-high doubles ranking of No. 25 on March 3. The New York City native earns his second straight First Team All-Big Ten accolades.

Montsi earns his first career All-Big Ten honors after going 17-9 in singles in 2019-20. Half of his 28 singles matches were against nationally-ranked opponents. The South African reached a career-high ranking No. 42 this past season. Along with Gui Gomes, Montsi clinched four straight doubles points for the Illini to close out the shortened season. 

Senior Vuk Budic was named Illinois' Sportsmanship Honoree.