Illinois men’s tennis player Alex Brown was named Big Ten Men’s Tennis Athlete of the week on Tuesday after winning three straight matches last week and going undefeated. Brown’s performance also helped the Illini get wins against No. 23 Northwestern and Purdue.

Brown got two of his wins from doubles and one from singles. The junior played his doubles matches with senior Aleks Kovacevic against both Northwestern and Purdue, beating Northwestern’s Nick Brookes and Simen Bratholm and Purdue’s Tomasz Dudek and Athell Bennett. In singles, Brown took down Northwestern’s Dominik Stary, while his Singles match against Purdue’s Athell Bennett went unfinished. 

Brown’s victories against Northwestern were needed as they only beat them by a score of 4-3. The victory also added a notch to head coach Brad Dancer’s resume as he became the first Illini head coach to reach their 300th career win. 

Brown will have more opportunities to help the Illini get victories this week as the team plays Tennessee State and No. 7 TCU on Saturday at home. 

@brendyn_jones

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