After a weekend spent fine-tuning their tennis games, junior Pramod Dabir and senior Evan Zeder said they are ready for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Midwest Regionals Thursday.

“We played a lot of matches and got a lot of match-play in,” Dabir said. “Now we just have to work on those things.”

Dabir and Zeder traveled to the Midland Invitational this weekend, where they faced some of the best collegiate competition in the country.

Sixteen teams, including Baylor, Texas and USC, sent athletes to the tournament.

The men said the tournament gave them a chance to see what they needed to work on before regionals. The regional doubles champion and singles finalists advance to the ITA National Indoor Championships.

Junior Ryler DeHeart and sophomore G D Jones have already qualified for nationals in doubles. They will be looking for bids into the singles portion of the national tournament.

Dabir intends to focus on staying aggressive throughout the matches.

He finished the weekend defeating Adam Loucks of USC 7-6(4), 6-4 and Ignadio Melus of Lamar 6-4, 6-2. Dabir lost to Texas Tech’s Michael Innerebner 6-4, 4-6 (10-7) and Baylor’s Lars Poerschke 7-6, 6-1.

Zeder was the only other Illini to make the trek to the Midland Invitational – he lost each of his three singles matches.

“I never really got it going,” he said. “In the second match, I had plenty of opportunities, but I couldn’t capitalize on the big ones.”

Zeder’s last singles match of the weekend pitted him against Baylor’s Michael Kokta. Baylor is the defending NCAA team champion.

“Seeing Baylor really gets the fire going,” Zeder said. “They’ve always had a target on their backs, but it’s getting a little bigger since they won NCAAs.”

The men joined forces during the doubles tournament as well. The Illini defeated USC’s Loucks and Aaron Badart 9-7. They topped Boise State’s team of Ikaik Jobe and Ehren Vaughn 8-3.

The men’s lone loss of the tournament came against Callum Beale and Roger Gubser of Texas. Gubser and Beale defeated the Illini tandem 8-5.

Zeder said he feels that knowing each other well helped them succeed this weekend. They have played only one other match together this year.

“When you play with a person you’ve been around longer, it’s easier because you already know their strengths,” Zeder said.

The smaller tournament environment also influenced the men’s performance, Zeder said.

“In the smaller tournaments, you don’t get into the team environment and competition as much,” Zeder said.

The tournament is one of the last smaller tournaments the men will travel to, and the majority of the team is expected to go to regionals.

“It’s fun to be getting into the bigger team events, where you get to travel with all of the guys and get to know some of them – especially the freshmen – better,” Zeder said.