As the fall season dwindles down to its final weeks, only four athletes from the Illinois men’s tennis team will be competing in the Big Ten Indoor Tennis Tournament this weekend at Wisconsin’s Nielsen Tennis Stadium. 

Freshman Alex Jesse, who will be in action Friday, is no stranger to competing in Madison, Wis., because he grew up in Milwaukee. 

“I won’t be able to sleep (Thursday night),” Jesse said. “I got a lot of friends that went to Madison from my high school, so I get to see them. Parents, family, friends. Everyone is coming out to watch, so I’m really excited.”

Jesse has not seen the results he wants, but he said he is not worried because he is looking at this fall season as a learning experience. He said he has worked on a lot of different tactics in practice, which sometimes causes him to overthink while on the court.

“I just need to block that out and play the way that I know,” Jesse said.

Freshman Julian Childers will be paired up with Jesse in the tournament’s doubles. He is also excited about competing in Jesse’s home state. 

“He has a lot of fans coming out to watch and support Illinois in Wisconsin, so that’ll be fun,” Childers said.

Childers is coming off a strong performance last weekend at the Conference Challenge at Texas A&M, where he went 3-1 in singles. Childers hopes to apply a tactic called the “triple-threat position,” which utilizes the inside of the tennis court. He is looking to move his opponents around with his forehand and eventually wear them out.

Senior Bruno Abdelnour and sophomore Ross Guignon go into the singles draw of the tournament seeded No. 3 and No. 9, respectively. Both Illini have been dealing with injuries this season but are in the latter part of their recovery. Guignon recently took four months off to rest his knee because of osteochondral defect, which is a fragmentation in his femur bone below his knee cap.

“It’s feeling better,” Guignon said. “Half the battle is mental for me because the injury was there all of last season. But I’m feeling pretty good, I had a good week at practice.”

Abdelnour has been battling wrist tendonitis since the summer. He said last week that he was at about 85 percent. Guignon and Abdelnour will also be paired up for doubles this weekend.

Only four Illini will be making the trip because of match restrictions, associate coach Marcos Asse said. Each athlete is held to 25 team dates and 25 individual dates throughout both seasons. 

Asse will be the lone Illini coach this weekend, as head coach Brad Dancer will stay back to hold practice.

“Clearly, there will be some stiff competition there from all the teams,” Asse said. “It is a Big Ten title, so it would be great to bring it back to Illinois.”

Steven can be reached at vazquez5@

dailyillini.com.