Illinois men’s tennis had a very successful weekend with wins over both Purdue and Indiana. The team impressively did not concede a single defeat in either match, winning 5-0 against Purdue and 4-0 against Indiana. This was a historic weekend for the time as well as their win over Purdue marks the 100th all-time win for Illinois over Purdue. This was a statement performance and the perfect response to a tough home loss against Ohio State last week. The Illini now have a record of 15-8, securing an above .500 season with five matches left in the year.

This was the best possible start for the team’s Big Ten road trip as the Illini are also favored in their upcoming match against No. 24 Northwestern on April 8. These wins also helped negate Illinois’ shaky away record as the Illini were just 1-5 in away matches before this weekend. Their dominant performance against Indiana also gave the team some playing experience on the courts where the Big Ten tournament will be played at the end of the season.

On Friday, the Illini did not record a single loss against Purdue. The winning started in their doubles matches as junior Hunter Heck and redshirt junior Lucas Horve and freshman Kenta Miyoshi and junior Alex Petrov both dominated their matches. Heck and Horve had a solid 6-3 win over duo Michal Wozniak and Milledge Cossu. Miyoshi and Petrov had a very impressive 6-1 win over partners Julen Morgan and Mujtaba Ali-Khan. Illinois duo sophomore Karlis Ozolins and graduate student Oliver Okonkwo had their match against Daniel Labrador and Tomasz Dudek go unfinished 4-3.

The winning didn’t stop with doubles matches, however. Sophomore Gabrielius Guzauskas and Petrov had their singles matches go unfinished, but sophomore William Mroz, Okonkwo, Heck and Miyoshi all finished their singles matches with wins. Mroz had a very solid showing in his match, winning his sets 6-1, 6-2. These matches wrapped up a strong start to Illinois’ string of away matches.

The Illini continued their hot run of form by running rampant in Bloomington against the Hoosiers. Once again, they finished without conceding a single point.

Starting with their doubles matches, Miyoshi and Petrov had their match go unfinished 4-3, but their teammates secured the W. Heck and Ozolins made slight work of Ekansh Kumar and Luka Vukovic winning their set 6-2. Mathis Debru and Horve then added to the wins by winning 6-3 in their match.

For singles matches graduate student Nic Meister, Petrov and Miyoshi all saw their games go unfinished. Meanwhile, teammates Ozolins, Heck and Mroz all enjoyed wins in their matches. Heck’s win against Ilya Tiraspolsky meant that he went perfect over these two matches, as he was one of the few Illini to finish both of his singles matches.

The team plays next against No. 24 Northwestern in Evanston on April 8 with the first serve coming at noon.

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