Illinois travels to Lincoln this weekend for the Big Ten Tournament. Their first match is slated for Friday at 2 pm CT. They will face the winner of Thursday's Indiana/Wisconsin match-up. Illinois was award the No. 1 seed in the West after clinching the regular season title.
Illinois has earned eight Big Ten Tournament titles in program history, including when the Illini hosted the event in 2012 and 2015.
THREE ILLINI NAMED FIRST TEAM ALL-B1G
Zeke Clark, Aleks Kovacevic, and Siphosothando Montsi were named First Team All-Big Ten earlier this week. Kovacevic and Montsi were unanimous selections.Â
LAST TIME OUTÂ
Illinois men's finished the regular season with a 4-0 sweep over Indiana last weekend, extending their win streak to 14.
In doubles, Zeke Clark and Alex Brown won their 10th match as a doubles pairing defeating Patrick Fletchall/Andrew Redding 6-3. Siphososothando Montsi and Noé Khlif clinched the doubles point on Court 2 defeating Bennett Crane/Luka Vukovic 6-3. Aleks Kovacevic and Hunter Heck were up 5-3 against Ilya Tiraspolsky/William Piekarsky when doubles play stopped.
In singles, Kovacevic defeated Bennett Crane 6-0,6-2 ion Court 1 before Khlif defeated Vikash Singh 6-1, 6-2 on six. Montsi clinched the match on Court 2. He defeated Andrew Redding 6-2,6-4.
ZEKE HITS 100
Illinois senior Zeke Clark defeated Albert Sprlak-Puk of Nebraska 6-2, 6-0 against Nebraska to earn his 100 singles match win on April 11. Clark is T-15th on the most career singles list and is the 16th Illini to hit reach 100 singles win.Â
Fellow senior Aleks Kovacevic is closing in on the mark. Kovacevic has 96 career singles wins.
In The Rankings
Illinois is ranked No. 13 in the ITA Coaches Poll and No. 17 in the ITA computerized rankings. Illinois highest ranking is No. 8 in the USTA coaches poll, where they sit for the second consecutive week.
They started their season unranked but receiving votes. After a strong performance over ITA Championship weekend, they jumped to No.6 in the Coaches poll.Â
In the latest singles and doubles ranking on Wednesday, April 28 Illinois had three singles players ranked and two doubles.
Singles Rankings
No. 83 - Zeke Clark
No. 101 - Siphosothando Montsi
No. 118 - Aleks Kovacevic
Doubles Rankings
No. 28 - Alex Brown and Zeke Clark
No. 64 - Kweisi Kenyatte and Siphos Montsi
Strong Showing at ITAÂ Championships
An unranked Illinois team hosted the top seven teams in the country Feb. 12-14. Illinois ended the weekend going 2-1, including defeating the number 1 team in the country. On the first night of the tournament Illinois went up against No. 1 seed and No. 1 ranked team in the country USC. The Illini claimed the doubled point and went on to win the three singles matched required to win. Senior Zeke Clark, had his moment. Playing on the last court in action Clark clinched the win, defeating Ryder Jackson 7-5, 7-5 on Court 4.
After a slip-up against Baylor, Illinois faced No. 7 ranked Virginia on Sunday. Illinois faces an uphill climb after losing the doubles point and was down 3-1 at one point. Alex Bancila, Hunter Heck and Siphos Montsi each won their respective match. For the second time in three days Zeke Clark clinched the upset for the Illini defeating J Von Der Schulenburg 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-3.
FAMILIAR FACES
Illinois returns four super seniors this year. Vuk Budic, Zeke Clark, Noe Khlif and Aleks Kovacevic all opted-in to the extra year of eligibility. Redshirt junior Alex Brown, redshirt sophomore Siphosothando Montsi, redshirt freshmen Alex Bancila and Lucas Horve also return this season. Junior Kweisi Kenyatte is expected to join the lineup after sitting out last season due to NCAA transfer rules. Joining the Illini is redshirt sophomore Nic Meister, a transfer from Claremont McKenna College and freshmen Hunter Heck and Alex Petrov.
