On Friday, a poor doubles performance plagued the Illinois men’s tennis team in its match against Purdue. Conversely, on Saturday, a good doubles performance helped the Illini edge Indiana.

The Illini started the weekend at Purdue where the team dropped the doubles point before sweeping through singles to finish the afternoon 6-1. Illinois won the doubles point on Saturday en route to a 4-3 victory over Indiana.

“We didn’t play great,” said Illinois freshman Monte Tucker. “We played good enough to win and we won the doubles point, which is a step in the right direction.”

Tucker went undefeated in singles this weekend to propel the Illini to their victories. Tucker topped Purdue’s Filip Koziell 7-5, 6-4 and Indiana’s Neil Kenner 6-3, 6-4. Junior Ryler DeHeart and freshman Ruben Gonzales were undefeated in singles this weekend as well. DeHeart defeated Purdue’s Paul Rose and Indiana’s Ryan Recht. Gonzales secured wins over Boilermaker Colin Foster and Hoosier Michael McCarthy.

The win against Indiana is the 42nd-straight victory for the Illini against Big Ten opponents, but it did not come easily.

“Indiana played very well today and fought hard and we expected that,” said Illinois head coach Craig Tiley in a press release. “I’ve said all week it wouldn’t be an easy win. We played a lot better in doubles today, but we didn’t play as well as we could have in some (singles) spots.”

Illinois was without senior Chris Martin, sophomore GD Jones and freshman Ryan Rowe. Martin is recovering from stress fractures but is expected to return to the Illini lineup in time for the team’s next match on March 17 against Notre Dame.

Jones will be back in action for the Illini then, too. Over the weekend, Jones went undefeated in singles to help New Zealand win its first round tie against Kazakhstan in Davis Cup competition.

Rowe, who was not originally expected to miss the match, injured his hand during morning practice before the match against Purdue. Tiley said Rowe would likely miss a few matches because of the injury.

“It was a little frustrating when Ryan got hurt,” said Illinois junior Pramod Dabir. “But we knew we were still a strong team and would have to get through these adversities.”

The depleted lineup caused changes not only to Illinois’ singles lineup, but also to the doubles lineup throughout the weekend.

Tucker and freshman Kevin Anderson, who had not played together in competition before this weekend, were victorious over Indiana’s Jakub Praibis and Dmytro Ishtuganov 9-8(4).

“We never even really practiced together (before the weekend),” Tucker said. “But we held serve every time, had fun and communicated well.”

Tucker said he was impressed by the way the team responded to the last-minute changes in the lineup.

“We will be a lot better when those guys return, because they’re some of our best players,” Tucker said. “But the guys that don’t normally play stepped up and did a good job.”

Freshman Brandon Davis and Gonzales were also victorious in their first match together in doubles competition this spring. The duo defeated McCarthy and Dara McLoughlin 9-7.

“Winning the doubles point is obviously very important for every match,” Dabir said. “It’s comforting knowing that you already have the doubles point won and that you only have to win three of the singles matches instead of all six of them.”

However, the team’s ability to perform better in doubles against Indiana was promising despite having to “mix and match” doubles combinations, Dabir said.

“Overall we did alright, we fought pretty hard – I don’t think we played our best – but we played a pretty good match. We showed that we can still pull out a victory,” Dabir said.