URBANA, Ill. – Illinois junior Hunter Heck and alumni Zeke Clark and Alex Brown advanced during Tuesday’s action as the Fighting Illini Open, a men’s tennis 25K tournament on the ITF World Tour, continued at Atkins Tennis Center.
In the first day of the main doubles draw, Heck partnered with former teammate Clark to defeat Blu Baker and Alexander Bernard and advance to the quarterfinals. The third-seeded Illini duo narrowly won the first set, 7-6(4), before taking control in the second frame, 6-3, to move on.
Brown moved onto the final stage of singles qualifying via a walkover but lost in two sets after a close back-and-forth match. Despite the loss, Brown advanced to the singles main draw due to the withdrawal of another player.
“It should be a great day tomorrow with five Illini representing,” Illinois assistant coach Tim Kopinski said. “I’m excited for our guys to have the opportunity to make a run on our home courts this week.”
Brown will face Ethan Quinn tomorrow in singles play while sophomore Karlis Ozolins will match up against Osgar O’hoison. Clark will go head-to-head with Alex Petrov and Heck will go against Kareem Al Allaf.
After dominating on Monday, sophomore Gabrielius Guzauskas fell to Johannus Monday in two sets. Graduate student Nic Meister, fresh off a victory over fellow Illini redshirt senior Lucas Horve, battled in the first and second sets against James Trotter but fell in tiebreakers in both frames.
Ozolins and Petrov began their Fighting Illini Open campaigns in a doubles match. The Illinois duo pushed their opponents but fell in the second set to Eduardo Nava and Nathan Ponwith.
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