Illinois men's tennis will play #6 Michigan Friday at 3 pm to begin their home Big Ten season. The Illini will host Michigan State at noon on Sunday before playing Butler at 5 pm CT.

Last Time Out

Illinois split matches against Ohio State and Penn State during the first weekend of the Big Ten play. After falling 4-0 t0 #3 OSU the Illini bounced back to sweep Penn State Sunday afternoon. The doubles pairing of Olivier Stuart and Siphosothando Montsi went 2-0 on the weekend. 

In The Rankings

In the singles rankings, released Wednesday (March 23) Illinois has two singles and tow doubles team ranked. Graduate transfer Olivier Stuart stayed ranked at No. 62 and sophomore Hunter Heck moved up to No. 92. The doubles pairing of Hunter Heck and Lucas Horve were ranked No. 50 while Montsi/Stuart moved into the rankings at No. 61. 

Key Pieces Return

Alex Brown, Hunter Heck, and Siphosothando Montsi all return to the team in 2022. Brown was an All-American in 2020 and played doubles no. 1 and singles no. 2 for Illinois last season. Monsti, who reached the Sweet 16 last season in the singles tournament and was named and All-American after posting a 16-3 singles record during the season is back. Kenyatte missed the second half of the season with an injury but had a couple key wins for Illinois including in their season opening upset of No. 1 USC. After a successful freshman season where his comeback win 0-6, 6-3, 7-5 against JJ Tracy who had been undefeated until then gave Illinois a point in the Big Ten Championship.

New Faces

Last season fifth year seniors  Zeke Clark, Aleks Kovacevic, and Noe Khilf played big roles in the teams success. To fill the holes left but the graduated senior Brad Dancer and assistant coach March Asse brought in four new Illini. The first was Mercer transfer Olivier Stuart who played four years at Mercer before sitting out last season and transferred to the Illini. Stuart is joined by freshmen Gabrielius Guzauskas, Will Mroz and Karlis Ozolins.

B1G Champs

Illinois was the first Big Ten West Division Title winner last season. Following the regular season championship Illinois was a no. 1 seed in the Big Ten tournament. The defeated Indiana 4-0 before matching up against Michigan in the semifinals. Illinois battled back to defeated the Wolverines 4-2. In the finals they were up against OSU, who they lost two in the regular season. The match lasted over three hours and the Illinois came out with the 4-3 win.

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