CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Illinois men's tennis head coach Brad Dancer unveiled the team's 2024 fall schedule on Friday. The Fighting Illini will take part in several events from coast to coast from September through November.
The Orange and Blue will spend the majority of the fall competing on the road before returning to Atkins Tennis Center in mid-November for the Champaign Challenger. Illinois will conclude its fall schedule Nov. 19-24 in Waco, Texas, with the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships, which formerly took place in the spring but have now been moved to the fall.
"I am looking forward to getting tougher and battle-tested by the end of the fall," Dancer said. "We have a slammed fall and will be taking our student-athletes to a mixture of the best collegiate events, getting some professional exposure, and testing them against the best of both worlds. I am excited to get back to work."
The listed schedule features all possible tournaments Illinois student-athletes could participate in; every student-athlete will not compete at every event.
September
Illinois will begin its fall slate Sept. 12-15, when select student-athletes head west to San Francisco for the Battle In The Bay Classic, hosted at the California Tennis Club. The Illini will also take part in the Louisville Invitational that same weekend, a competition that will run from Sept. 13-15.
The following weekend will be a busy one for the Orange and Blue. The Harvard Chowderfest in Cambridge, Mass.; the Redbird Invitational in Normal, Ill.; and the Everybody vs. Cancer Invitational in Toledo, Ohio, are all scheduled for Sept. 20-22.
The ITA All-American Championships are set for Sept. 21-29 in Tulsa, Okla., a competition that will see 10 singles players and four doubles tandems qualify for the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships in November.
The Illini will then compete from Sept. 27-29 at the Milwaukee Tennis Classic for the second consecutive season. Junior Kenta Miyoshi claimed the singles title at the event in September 2023.
The month of September also offers multiple tournaments on the ITF pro circuit, with the Fayetteville M15 Futures (Sept. 16-22) and Ann Arbor (Sept. 30-Oct. 6) on the calendar for the Orange and Blue.
October
Illinois begins the first full week of October with a pro event, Louisville M25 Futures, before the ITA Midwest Regional Championship gets underway on Oct. 10 in East Lansing, Mich. The regional competition's two singles finalists and doubles champion will earn a spot at the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships. Illini duo Hunter Heck and Karlis Ozolins secured the doubles title at the competition last season.
A string of pro tournaments – Winston-Salem M15 Futures, Norman M25 Futures, Charlottesville Challenger, and Fayetteville PTT – round out the month of October for the Illini.
November
The Illini will return to South Bend, Ind., during the first weekend of November for the Notre Dame Mini Duals Nov. 1-3. The following week features two more pro circuit competitions – the Knoxville Challenger and Boca Raton PTT – before the Orange and Blue compete for additional paths to the NCAA Individual Championships.
The ITA Conference Masters Championships, Nov. 7-10 in San Diego, will give four singles players and three doubles pairs a berth in the NCAA Championships. The ITA Central Sectional in Fort Worth, Texas, will also run from Nov. 7-10 and allow six singles players and three doubles duos to advance to the NCAA Championships.
The Big Ten Individual Championships, slated for Nov. 7-10 in Madison, Wis.; the Baylor Ranked +1 tournament, Nov. 8-10 in Waco, Texas; and the Toledo Zach Barden Memorial in Toledo, Ohio, are all scheduled for that same weekend.
Illinois will host its lone home event of the fall from Nov. 10-17, when Atkins Tennis Center serves as the site for the Champaign Challenger, a pro event on the ATP Challenger Tour.
The Illini will close out the fall the following week, Nov. 19-24, with the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships in Waco, Texas.
The team's 2024-25 campaign marks head coach Brad Dancer's 20th season at the helm of the program.
The full schedule can be found HERE.
