#24 Illinois Travels to New York City for ITA Kickoff Weekend

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – No. 24 Illinois heads to New York City to compete in ITA Kickoff Weekend on Friday and Saturday. The Fighting Illini will first face host No. 10 Columbia on Friday at 2 p.m. CT before playing either Florida or Kentucky on Saturday.

ITA Kickoff Weekend features 56 programs looking to advance to the ITA National Indoor Championships in February. 14 schools, one from each of the 14 host sites during ITA Kickoff Weekend, will join Baylor and SMU – which automatically qualified by being hosts of the ITA Indoor Nationals – at the 16-team event from Feb. 13-17 in Texas.

Teams chose their ITA Kickoff Weekend destination in a draft format, with the selection order determined by the final ITA team rankings of the 2024 season. The Illini, who held the No. 33 spot in the draft, opted to take the final opening in the New York region, which featured No. 10 Columbia (the No. 1 seed and host), Florida (the No. 2 seed), and Kentucky (the No. 3 seed).

The Illini are looking to make the ITA National Team Indoor Championships for the first time since the 2022-23 season.

WEEKEND SCHEDULE

Friday, Jan. 23 - First Round
Match 1 - 10 a.m. CT: Florida vs. Kentucky
Match 2 - 2 p.m. CT: No. 24 Illinois vs. No. 10 Columbia

Saturday, Jan. 24
Consolation Match (Loser Match 1 vs. Loser Match 2) - 10 a.m. CT
Championship Match (Winner Match 1 vs. Winner Match 2) - 2 p.m. CT

Winner of Championship Match advances to ITA National Team Indoor Championships

LAST TIME OUT

No. 24 Illinois fell to No. 7 Mississippi State, 5-2, in a back-and-forth ranked battle in the team's season opener at Atkins Tennis Center on Friday, Jan. 16.

Three Fighting Illini student-athletes made their dual debuts for the Orange and Blue, with freshman Sasha Colleu going 2-0 on the day.

The Illini secured the doubles point behind quick wins on Courts 1 and 2. Colleu and Gabriel Debru were the first to finish, cruising to a 6-0 victory over Bulldog duo Niccolo Baroni and Mario Martinez Serrano. Adam Jilly and Kenta Miyoshi were not far behind, claiming a 6-2 victory over No. 2-ranked Benito Sanchez Martinez and Petar Jovanovic.

Illinois doubled its advantage with Colleu's straight-set ranked triumph at No. 5 doubles. Breaking twice within the first three games, the freshman tallied a 6-3 decision in the opening frame. The Miami native posted a bagel in the second set en route to his 6-3, 6-0 win over No. 34 Bryan Hernandez Cortes in his dual debut.

The Bulldogs ultimately notched the final five singles triumphs, clinching the match for the visitors via victories on Courts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6.

ABOUT COLUMBIA, FLORIDA, KENTUCKY

Host Columbia enters the weekend with a 1-1 dual record, defeating Bucknell in its season opener before falling to No. 18 South Carolina, 4-3, on Sunday. The Lions feature back-to-back NCAA singles champion Michael Zheng on their 2026 squad, though Zheng is currently making his Grand Slam debut in the singles main draw at the Australian Open.

The two-time reigning Ivy League champions feature two other ranked singles student-athletes, including No. 52 Nicolas Kotzen and No. 65 Sachin Palta. The duo of Thanaphat Boosarawongse and Aditya Govila sits at No. 37 in the ITA doubles rankings.

Florida, the No. 2 seed in this weekend's competition, won its season opener against USF by a 4-3 scoreline and heads to New York City with a 1-0 record. The Gators have two players in the ITA singles rankings – No. 31 Jeremy Jin and No. 115 Henry Jefferson – in addition to two ranked doubles pairings: No. 6 Tanapatt Nirundorn/Henry Jefferson and No. 71 Andreas Timini/Tanapatt Nirundorn.

Kentucky boasts a 3-0 mark entering the weekend after sweeping its season-opening doubleheader against Dayton and most recently securing a 5-2 home win over No. 20 Michigan State. The Wildcats' roster includes two student-athletes ranked among the top 30 singles players in the country – No. 19 Eli Stephenson and No. 26 Jack Loutit – along with freshman Mikael Arsenault. Stephenson and Loutit are the nation's No. 69-ranked doubles tandem.

SERIES HISTORY

Illinois and Columbia will play each other in a dual for the first time on Friday, though the Lions came to Champaign-Urbana for the Fighting Illini Invite in 2025.

The Illini and the Gators have played 23 times, most recently facing off during the 2021-22 season. Then top-ranked Florida put up a dominant 7-0 victory on its home courts on March 16, 2022, with current ATP top-10 singles player Ben Shelton on the roster. The Gators have won the last five meetings and hold a slight 12-11 edge in the series, which dates back to 1951. Florida, alongside Illinois, competed at the Florida Hidden Duals earlier this month, with the Illini and Gators playing three singles matches and one doubles match against each other. 

Illinois holds a 17-22 deficit in the all-time series with Kentucky, with the Wildcats winning the last three matchups. The sides last met during the 2024 NCAA Tournament, with host Kentucky posting a narrow 4-3 triumph over the Illini. Illinois and Kentucky are slated to meet again this season, with the Wildcats hosting the Orange and Blue on Feb. 8.

PLAYERS IN THE ITA RANKINGS

Team

• No. 13: Columbia
• No. 23: Kentucky
• No. 25: Illinois

Singles

• No. 1: Michael Zheng (Columbia)
• No. 10: Kenta Miyoshi (Illinois)
• No. 19: Eli Stephenson (Kentucky)
• No. 26: Jack Loutit (Kentucky)
• No. 31: Jeremy Jin (Florida)
• No. 52: Nicolas Kotzen (Columbia)
• No. 65: Sachin Palta (Columbia)
• No. 87: Adam Jilly (Illinois)
• No. 115: Henry Jefferson (Florida)
• No. 124: Mikael Arseneault (Kentucky)

Doubles

• No. 6: Tanapatt Nirundorn/Henry Jefferson (Florida)
• No. 37: Thanaphat Boosarawongse/Aditya Govila (Columbia)
• No. 69: Eli Stephenson/Jack Loutit (Kentucky)
• No. 71: Andreas Timini/Tanapatt Nirundorn (Florida)

ILLINOIS BRINGS IN FIVE FRESHMEN IN HIGHLY TOUTED 2025 RECRUITING CLASS

The Fighting Illini brought in five freshmen for the 2025-26 season: David Bakonyi, Sasha Colleu, Gabriel Debru, Adam Jilly, and Hayden Jones. Illinois' 2025 recruiting class was ranked No. 2 in the nation by the Tennis Recruiting Network in May, though that ranking came prior to the high-profile signing of Debru in June.

One of the highest-rated players to ever compete collegiately, Debru hails from Grenoble, France, and holds career-high ATP rankings of No. 233 in singles and No. 273 in doubles. He has secured two singles titles in ATP Challenger Tour events, along with three singles titles on the ITF tour. He has also amassed one ATP Challenger title and two ITF titles in doubles play during his career. Still only 19 years old, Debru has competed three times in the singles qualifying rounds at Roland-Garros, one of the four Grand Slam events on the ATP Tour. Prior to his shift into professional tennis, Debru won the singles title at the 2022 Roland-Garros Junior Championships and soon became the top-ranked ITF junior player in the world in July 2022.

With a career-high ITF junior ranking of No. 8, Jones holds career-best ATP rankings of No. 970 in singles and No. 602 in doubles. He has earned wild-card entries into singles qualifying for the Australian Open in 2024 and 2025 and was named the 2024 Australian Tennis Junior Male Athlete of the Year.

Colleu, a blue-chip recruit from Florida, was the 16th-ranked American in the Tennis Recruiting Network's Class of 2025 rankings. Colleu has won two junior doubles titles, securing tournament wins at J100 Quebec City in September and J100 Mexico City in October. With five singles titles on the ITF juniors circuit, Colleu most recently claimed the singles tournament win at J100 Delray Beach on April 26.

David Bakonyi and Adam Jilly were part of the Illini's previously No. 9-ranked class in TRN's winter recruiting rankings. Bakonyi has a career-high ITF junior ranking of No. 182, along with three junior singles and 13 junior doubles titles. Jilly has a career-best ITF junior ranking of No. 111, amassing four junior singles and nine junior doubles titles. Having already played together in doubles on the junior circuit, Bakonyi and Jilly have teamed up for eight junior doubles titles, including three during the 2024 season.

MROZ NAMED TO B1G PLAYERS TO WATCH LIST

Fighting Illini senior William Mroz was named to the Big Ten's Men's Tennis Players to Watch list, the conference office announced on Jan. 9.

He was one of 14 Big Ten student-athletes to secure a spot on the Big Ten Men's Tennis Players to Watch list. Mroz enters his final year at Illinois during the 2026 dual season.

During the Illini's 2024-25 campaign, the Florida native secured All-Big Ten Second Team status for the first time in his career, posting a 20-9 overall mark and a 5-1 conference record on the singles courts. He also found success in doubles, finishing the year with a 17-9 tally overall and a 7-2 record in doubles play in the Big Ten.

An Academic All-Big Ten honoree, he climbed as high as No. 30 in the ITA singles rankings, which came in the final rankings of the fall season. He ultimately closed the 2024-25 slate at No. 81.

MIYOSHI EARNS ITA SINGLES ALL-AMERICA HONORS IN NOVEMBER

Illinois senior Kenta Miyoshi secured ITA Singles All-America honors for the second consecutive season before closing his time at the NCAA Singles Championship in the third round on Thursday.

The Japan native made his second straight appearance at the NCAA Singles Championship, finishing with two ranked wins during his time at the USTA National Campus in Florida.

Miyoshi began his run with a straight-set win over UC Santa Barbara's No. 96-ranked Dominique Rolland in the opening round of singles action on Tuesday night. He then defeated No. 16 Edward Winter of Pepperdine in the second round in straight sets, helping him secure ITA All-American status and a spot in the third round for the second straight season.

His run ultimately came to a close in the third round with a two-set defeat to #22-ranked Trevor Svajda of SMU.