With junior Kate Duong and sophomore Megan Heuser’s historic run to the ITA National Fall Championships coming to a close last Thursday, Illinois women’s tennis will regroup for their last competition of the fall season. 

The week-long competition is composed of a 32-person main singles draw, a 28-person qualifying singles draw and a 16-team doubles draw. The final eight competitors from the qualifying singles draw earn spots in the main singles draw.

The only other time the Illini played at home this season was back in September in the UTR College Circuit. That weekend couldn’t have gone much better for the Illini; seniors Ashley Yeah and Josie Frazier earned the doubles championship while the singles championship split across four Illini semifinalists. 

Frazier, Duong and Heuser along with sophomores Kida Ferrari and Kasia Treiber will be looking to replicate that level of success this week.

Senior Emily Casati and freshman Violetta Matrinez will not be playing this weekend, most likely due to lingering injuries.

Kicking off the competition for the Illini will be Frazier, Ferrari and Treiber as they look to battle their way out of the qualifying draw and claim the vacancies in the main draw. In their last time out, Ferrari was unable to make it out of the qualifying round due to a close 6-4, 7-5 loss while Frazier made it to the round of 32 and Treiber made it to the round of 16. 

Yeah, Duong and Heuser await any qualifying Illini in the main draw, where Yeah and Duong will face off against qualifiers in the first round while Heuser has been matched up against professional Tori Kinard. 

The qualifying draw will be played entirely on Sunday, setting up the main singles draw to begin on Monday and to last until the final is played on Saturday. The doubles draw will also begin on Monday, with the final being played on Friday.

Illinois women’s tennis will close out their season at the Atkins Center, beginning this Sunday with the potential to play until next Saturday. 

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