This past week, the Illini headed up to Chicago to compete in the ITA Midwest Regional. Junior Jeremy Zhang and freshmen Adam Jilly, Sasha Colleu and Hayden Jones represented Illinois at the event. There were high stakes, with trips to the NCAA championships on the line for top finishers.
Singles qualifying matches
Colleu started off the tournament in the qualifiers for the singles tournament, and he did not disappoint. He took complete control of both matches. First, Colleu took down Northern Illinois senior Iker Dellian Velasco 6-2, 6-2. Then, Colleu extinguished UIC sophomore Eldin Nokic, 6-0, 6-4. With those wins, Colleu moved on to the singles main draw.
As a freshman, Colleu has been thrown into the fire early, but head coach Brad Dancer has confidence in his skills.
“Sasha is acquiring new skills,” Dancer said. “His game is really growing incredibly fast.”
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
Main doubles draw
The main doubles draw started off with Jones making his collegiate debut alongside Zhang. The two earned a win against Youssef Mokhles and Mihailo Savic, 8-5. The duo of Jilly and Colleu also took care of business in the first round, beating Toledo juniors Charlie Snow and Cole Cozens, 8-4.
Jones and Zhang were eliminated in the second round, but Jilly and Colleu continued to push forward. The freshmen defeated Notre Dame graduate student Perry Gregg and junior Kyran Magimay, 8-6 to move on to the third round.
Illinois’ doubles tournament came to an end in round three. Ohio State juniors Aidan Kim and Bryce Nakashima eliminated Jilly and Colleu 8-5.
Although the duo fell short of taking the title, Dancer raved about their competitiveness and love of the game.
“Adam and Sasha, they’re both fighters, which I love,” Dancer said. “They love the competition, they love to be out there. They love to be in the heat of the battle, and that’s so critically important. That’s been fun to coach them through that.”
Singles main draw
Jones led off for the Illini, making his collegiate singles debut. He was unable to claim victory and move on, losing to Illinois State sophomore Christian Capacci, 7-5, 6-2. The rest of the Illini found success in the first round.
Jilly took down Magimay, 3-6, 6-7 (8), 6-3. Colleu beat Northwestern junior Ethan Schiffman, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Zhang cruised to a straight-sets victory over DePaul sophomore Andy Hadziabdic, 6-3, 6-1.
Zhang has come a long way now in his junior season, but he knows his game can still evolve.
“I think my shot clarity from the baseline, ground strokes and my transitioning is probably the strongest part of my game,” Zhang said. “I can improve in terms of what I want to do on my serve. That’s something that we’ve been working on the last couple weeks, and I’m excited to keep working on it.”
In the second round, Notre Dame senior Sebastian Dominko knocked off Colleu, 6-3, 6-1, while Wisconsin senior Michael Minasyan took out Zhang, 7-5, 6-0. The last Illinois player standing was Jilly, who beat Wisconsin junior Tomas Zlatohlavek in a close 7-5, 6-4 match.
Round three displayed Jilly’s resilience. Facing off against Nakashima, he won a narrow tiebreaker in set one, 7-6 (7). After dropping set two, 5-7, he bounced back, winning the match in set three, 6-2.
Despite losing in the semi-finals to Ohio State senior Jack Anthrop, Jilly proved he is capable of playing in high-level matches. As a freshman, Jilly knows that this experience will only help him in the long run.
“I feel like when I’m winning two, three, four matches, it really builds my confidence up,” Jilly said. “And I can bring it to the future matches as well, to be that confident and just play point by point.”
No Illinois player qualified for the NCAA championships during the event, but the team will still have a representative in senior Kenta Miyoshi.
Illinois’ next event is the Charlottesville Challenger next week in Charlottesville, Virginia.
