Editor’s note: The Daily Illini sports desk sits down Sunday nights and decides which Illinois athlete or coach is our Illini of the Week. Student-athletes and coaches are evaluated by individual performance and contribution to team success.

Jared Hiltzik steps up to the white baseline and bounces the tennis ball four times in front of him. A sprain in his ankle aches from the point before. “I need a big serve,” he thinks as he tosses the ball up and swiftly takes his shot.

Duke’s Fred Saba stands opposite him and makes his best effort to return; both sides have much to lose. Hiltzik squeaked by in the first set 7-6 (7), but Saba retaliated in the next 4-6. But as No. 23 Saba knocks the ball back, No. 114 Hiltzik can already see it will fall just outside and that he’s won the match.

“As soon as he missed it, it was pretty surreal,” Hiltzik said. “I didn’t really know what to do.”

With the match score previously tied at 3-3, all eyes were on Hiltzik, and his victory resulted in an energetic rushing of the court by Illini players, coaches and fans. Duke, the then-No. 5 men’s tennis team in the country, had been handed its first loss of the season — and by a freshman, no less.

Despite the high stakes, Hiltzik said he never felt the pressure building on him. If anything, the crowd energy helped him recuperate. His eyes were fixed on the match at hand, refusing to let them wander around to the other courts for long.

Brad Dancer, head coach of the No. 19 Illini, said while Hiltzik has a lot of work to do in respects to the fundamentals of his tennis game — backhand, second serve, etc. — the three big talents he has working for him are his speed, intelligence in decision-making under pressure, and a very effective first serve that help him win quick points.

“Brad always says, ‘I can put you up against a wall and you’ll somehow find a way out,’” Hiltzik said in respects to his mental composure in matches.

But Hiltzik is not without flaws. He said he and Dancer have been working on correcting his tendency of looking too much into his opponent and getting ahead of himself to the point of becoming psyched out unnecessarily.

Until two years ago, he didn’t even know what type of tennis player he was. It wasn’t until he became a part of Heiser Tennis Academy — coached by former Illini Billy Heiser — that Hiltzik said he learned to use his speed to his advantage.

“When he first got there, he was a good athlete. … He just hadn’t quite matured yet or understood what he could develop into,” Heiser said. “(His win over Saba) speaks to how tough he is mentally and how much he believe in himself physically.”

Now, Hiltzik is a confident, well-composed member of the Illini, knit tight in fabrics of the young team and developing his own rituals of team lunches and cold showers before heading into battle.

Senior teammate Stephen Hoh said he admires the way Hiltzik’s confidence rubs off on the team rather than overshadow them, which is a nice trait to have when working toward his ultimate goal as a tennis player: Making it to the pros.

Realistically, Hiltzik isn’t anywhere close to the professional level now. As Dancer said, his whole game has to get better from a skill perspective, which he’s improved on since the fall. But counting out an 18-year-old who was ranked the No. 1 recruit in the nation by TennisRecruiting.net in 2012 would be senseless.

“In tennis now, it’s such a physical game that it’s not a young person’s game anymore,” Heiser said. “So, he’s got a long way away. But if he works hard, he’s got as good a shot as anybody.”

This Saturday’s match against No. 9 Kentucky marks another step in Hiltzik’s collegiate career, but the question hanging in the air asks whether he will continue to show his reliability or start to waver under the weight of high-ranked opponents in the remainder of the season.

The only thing that’s for sure is that Jared Hiltzik will be someone to watch for the duration of his time here at Illinois.

J.J. can be reached at [email protected].