CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Illinois men’s tennis rounded out the weekend with two wins over Drake and Bellarmine on Jan. 29 at Atkins Tennis Center.
“I’m obviously really happy to go 4-0 over the weekend,” head coach Brad Dancer said. “I think one of the other big things is getting some guys out there. We’ve been waiting a long time to get Gabrielius Guzauskas back out there. So for him to be out there this weekend was great. He’s going to be a real integral part of what we do, not in just in this season but in future seasons and him getting back out there was really critical for us. We got a little spunk back in our doubles, which was good to see. Overall, it’s a successful weekend anytime you go 4-0 and we have great challenges on the road ahead of us with Duke and North Carolina. People come to Illinois tennis to go and be apart of these matches and we look forward to it.”
Drake, 5-2
Transfers Mathis Debru and Oliver Okonkwo made quick work against opponents Evan Fragistas and Jeremy Schifris with a 6-0 win.
William Mroz and Kenta Miyoshi followed with a 6-4 victory over Markus Bolin and Olle Sonesson Lidholt.
Hunter Heck and Karlis Ozolins were up 6-5 before their match went unfinished.
Ozolins was the first Illini to finish in singles competition with a 6-1, 7-6 (2) win over Matija Matic. Miyoshi took his victory 7-6 (5), 6-0 against Reid Jarvis.
Okonkwo defeated Markus Bolin, 7-5, 6-2, followed by Alex Petrov with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Oliver Johansson.
Both Heck and Mroz dropped their matches– Heck, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5, against Jeremy Schifris and Mroz against Evan Fragistas 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Bellarmine, 6-1
Doubles were once again finished in under an hour, first with Heck and Lucas Horve beating Jack Batchelor and Kyle Tang, 6-1 followed by Okonkwo and Debru defeating Paul Reynolds and Matthew Nice 6-3.
Debru moved onto singles competition quickly defeating Eli Wood, 6-2, 6-1. Okonkwo was the next Illini with a win, beating Vineet Ramesh, 6-1, 6-3.
Petrov also won his match, beating Kyle Tang, 6-1, 6-2. Gabrielius Guzauskas followed, beating Jack Batchelor, 6-3, 6-3.
Two Illini went into super tie breaks – first, Nic…
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