Illinois’ Pramod Dabir and Ruben Gonzales grabbed the consolation titles at the Big Ten Singles Championships Monday in Madison, Wis.

But it was freshman Monte Tucker who showed the most progress, Illinois associate head coach Brad Dancer said.

“Overall, the results could have been a little bit better,” Dancer said. “It was a little bit of mixed results.”

Tucker’s improvement was evident in both his playing style and his results.

He advanced to round 16 of the tournament. During that round, Northwestern’s Tommy Hanus topped Tucker 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. More important than Tucker’s romp through the main draw was his ability to remain calm, Dancer said. Instead of becoming frustrated, the freshman responded to the pressure.

“Usually when he gets nervous, he has a really strong knee-jerk reaction,” Dancer said. “I was really proud of how he handled himself.”

Tucker also realized the advantages of staying calm under pressure.

“I was a lot more composed and was able to focus on the process when things weren’t going my way,” Tucker said.

Tucker was also pleased with the improvement in his serve.

“We’re definitely right in there during the tough matches,” Tucker said.

Dabir, who won the consolation title during his last appearance at the Big Ten Singles Championships in 2002, was impressed with Tucker’s performance. Dabir won his second consolation tournament title.

“He played a tough guy (Hanus) in the main draw and almost took him out,” Dabir said. “He definitely executed well.”

Both Dancer and Dabir were impressed with Gonzales’ performance as well.

Gonzales, in only his second college tournament, defeated James Dwyer of Penn State 6-2, 6-1 to win one of the two consolation titles.

“Ruben is really starting to find his style and get into a rhythm,” Dancer said.

Throughout the tournament, Dancer said the men kept their composure and fought hard, especially when Dabir and Gonzales suffered tough losses early on. Gonzales was down two match points during his first-round match and battled back to win.

“I didn’t even think that I was going to get out of the first match,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales said it was important to have a game plan before each match, which helped him play more aggressively with an organized style.

Throughout the tournament, the men were also carefully organizing mental notes on their Big Ten competition. The Illini will see every athlete at the tournament during the spring dual-match season. Now they know what they need to do to improve and be even more successful.

“Each guy has his own things to work on. Each one of them has a laundry list of things they need to improve on before the spring,” Dancer said. “The work to improve never stops.”