CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Illinois men’s tennis team is set to compete in back-to-back dual meets against No. 4 Kentucky on Jan. 21 at 12 p.m. and No. 2 Ohio State on Jan. 22 at 1:30 p.m.
While Ohio State is in the Big Ten, the match against the Illini will not count toward the Big Ten record.
LAST TIME OUT
Illinois is coming off a weekend sweep against Wichita State and Bryant. The Illini stared the day with a 6-1 win against the Shockers where Oliver Okonkwo and Mathis Debru, defeating Duccio Petreni and Luke Bracks 6-2 and Karlis Ozolins and William Mroz beat Richey King and Misha Kvantaliani, 7-6 (3).
Hunter Heck, Ozolins, Mroz, Okonkwo and Debru all won their singles matches as well – Heck beat Kristof Minarik, 6-0, 6-1, Ozolins beat Kvantaliani 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, Mroz took down Alex Richards, 6-3, 6-4 Okonkwo 6-3, 6-1 against Bracks and Debru 6-4, 7-6 (2) against King.
The match against Bryant was shortened with the Illini walking away with a 4-0 win. The victory was guided by a 6-3 doubles win from Ozolins and Mroz against Leonardo Mileikowsky and Will Pellegrini, as well as a 6-2 doubles win from Okonkwo and Debru against Jean-Christophe Baril and Aryaan Sen.
The wins continued with Heck defeating Mileikowsky 6-3, 6-1 against, with Okonkwo winning 6-1, 6-1 over Diego Trejo. Ozolins took his victory over Nick Lorenz, 6-2, 6-2.
SCOUTING REPORT
Kentucky cruised past Dayton in their opening doubleheader on Jan. 18, defeating the Flyers by scores of 5-0 and 4-0 without dropping a single set. No. 1 doubles pair, Liam Draxl and Alafia Ayeni, went 2-0 on the day, as did the tandem of Jaden Weekes and Alexandre LeBlanc.
Draxl also managed two singles wins, including a victory over 2022 First-Team All-Atlantic 10 selection, Connor Bruce.
Ohio State opened their season with a doubleheader against Cleveland State and Toledo, sweeping them 7-0 and 4-0, respectively.
The Buckeyes are bringing in the No. 2 ranked doubles pair in the nation with JJ Tracy and Andrew Lutschaunig who handled their business against Cleveland State pair of Kade Mindry and Raul Teichmann on court one with a 6-2 victory.
Fifth-ranked Tracy and 90th-ranked Alexander Bernard never faltered for the Buckeyes, only giving up two points each on their way to victories over Kade Mindry and Raul Teichmann, Tracy with a…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at University of Illinois Athletics…