The Illinois men’s tennis team has shown flashes of possible things to come through Friday and some of Saturday at the first annual Fighting Illini Invitational in Olympia Fields, Ill.

In the round robin style invitational, Illinois senior Ryan Rowe defeated Billy Mertz 6-2, 6-3 on Friday. Mertz is the highest ranked player on the University of Alabama squad at No. 42 in the nation.

Unfortunately for Rowe, who is ranked ninth in singles in the nation, the University of Miami’s Daniel Vallverdu was too much to handle. The No. 19 All-American Vallverdu defeated Rowe 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday.

Illini sophomore Billy Heiser and freshmen Abe Souza and Connor Roth all defeated their Crimson Tide opponents on Friday. Roth showed resilience on Friday after losing handily in his first set to Sammy Struyf, 2-6. Roth won the next two 6-2, 6-4 to steal the match.

On Saturday Roth prevailed again, defeating Miami’s JC Whitner 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (11-9).

For duos, the highly touted match-up was between Illinois’ Rowe and 6-foot-0 Brandon Davis and the No. 5-ranked duo on Alabama of Mathieu Thibaudeau and Dan Buikema. The Illini won 8-5. Heiser and Roth, too, defeated their Alabama duo of Mertz and Javier Bes 8-5.

Rowe and Davis also beat the Mertz/Bes tandem 8-5.

The invitational will be wrapped up on Sunday, and Illinois head coach Brad Dancer has said in the past that he expects his players to become better after this weekend.