Illini Tennis

WhiteRhino · May 22, 2021

Just to put this season into perspective:

Illinois finished the season with a record of 23-3. Their three losses came to Florida, Baylor, and Ohio State. They later avenged the loss to Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament final.

Florida and Baylor are currently ranked #1 and #2 in the country and are playing today to decide the national championship.

Illinois' best wins this season were over Virginia, Southern California, and Ohio State. All four of those teams made it to the round of 16 in tournament. Ohio State beat #10 Wake Forest and then lost to #7 TCU. #12 Southern Cal beat #5 Virginia in the round of 16 and then lost a close 4-3 match to #4 Texas.

I think Illinois definitely deserved to be seeded higher than #16. Regardless, it was a successful season.

2021 Division I Men's Tennis Official Bracket | NCAA.com

The official 2021 College Men's Tennis Bracket for Division I. Includes a printable bracket and links to buy NCAA championship tickets.

www.ncaa.com

BRucks · May 24, 2021

Florida went on to win 4-1 over Baylor for the title. Those two teams gave us two of our three losses this year. In singles, all three of our guys have moved on to the round of 32. I believe we have the only B10 competitors left in the tournament.

WhiteRhino · May 25, 2021

Kovacevic and Montsi both attained All-American status by winning their second-round matches. Zeke Clark fell just short and joins a long list of great Illinois players who narrowly missed becoming All-Americans.

Kovacevic won again today and is into the quarterfinals

EyeoftheIllini · Jul 19, 2021

Didn’t see a Illini tennis players in the pros thread, so here made the most sense to post that Kevin Anderson won the Hall of Fame Open in Newport RI this past weekend. It was his 7th ATP title and brought his career earnings up to $17.3M. Not too shabby.

WhiteRhino · Jul 19, 2021

EyeoftheIllini said:
Didn’t see a Illini tennis players in the pros thread, so here made the most sense to post that Kevin Anderson won the Hall of Fame Open in Newport RI this past weekend. It was his 7th ATP title and brought his career earnings up to $17.3M. Not too shabby.

Rajeev Ram won that tournament twice. They should rename it the "Illini Open."

EyeoftheIllini · Sep 10, 2021

Saw that Rajeev Ram is in the US Open doubles final today.

EyeoftheIllini · Sep 10, 2021

And Ram won. That is his second Grand Slam title. He and his partner split $660,000. Not too shabby.

BRucks · Sep 10, 2021

EyeoftheIllini said:
And Ram won. That is his second Grand Slam title. He and his partner split $660,000. Not too shabby.

Nice job. Gotta make hay while the sun shines. He's 37.

WhiteRhino · Sep 10, 2021

BRucks said:
Nice job. Gotta make hay while the sun shines. He's 37.

Rajeev has done very well as a doubles specialist

EyeoftheIllini · Sep 10, 2021

WhiteRhino said:
Rajeev has done very well as a doubles specialist

I found it interesting that of the four on the court, the announcer mentioned Ram was the only one of them who ever made it into the top 100 in singles. Ram has won 2 singles titles — the Hall of Fame Championship (2009 and 2016). Seems his doubles career took a big leap forward when he started pairing with Joe Salisbury. Not sure when exactly that happened, but both of his Grand Slam men’s doubles championships have come playing with him.

ChiefIlliniwek05 · Sep 20, 2021

21-22 roster is now up and Karlis Ozolins does not appear to be on it. That seems odd to me considering he signed earlier this year and just won a doubles title with Kenyatte. Anyone know what happened?

BRucks · Sep 20, 2021

ChiefIlliniwek05 said:
21-22 roster is now up and Karlis Ozolins does not appear to be on it. That seems odd to me considering he signed earlier this year and just won a doubles title with Kenyatte. Anyone know what happened?

A pure guess on my part. Maybe he'll play professional events in the fall and join the team in the spring (when the majority of the conference matches take place). I think both Vukic and Gosea did the same.

ChiefIlliniwek05 · Sep 27, 2021

BRucks said:
A pure guess on my part. Maybe he'll play professional events in the fall and join the team in the spring (when the majority of the conference matches take place). I think both Vukic and Gosea did the same.

You are correct. I am hearing that Ozolins will join the team in January.

BRucks · Dec 24, 2021

ChiefIlliniwek05 said:
This is a incredible get. Bancilla seemed to help big time with the recruiting. I'm thinking this guy slides into the #1 spot in the future.

Still no sign of Ozolins on the roster. Also notice that Bancilla is not listed and he had played a role in the Ozolins recruitment.

BRucks · Jan 18, 2022

ChiefIlliniwek05 said:
You are correct. I am hearing that Ozolins will join the team in January.

Yup, he is here now. Also added William Mroz for spring.

WhiteRhino · Jan 18, 2022

BRucks said:
Yup, he is here now. Also added William Mroz for spring.

That is great news! If they can stay healthy, their line-up looks really good. With them hosting NCAA's this year again, hopefully they can ride the home crowd and make a run at another title

BRucks · Jan 22, 2022

Attended the tOSU match today which we lost 0-4. Tucker has his usual bevy of highly ranked players up and down the lineup. That being said, I came away optimistic. Kenyatte, Montsi, Mroz, Ozolins and Petrov all rode the bench. Petrov had a cast or wrapping on his right wrist but I see in the box score that he played in the later match vs. Chicago State. I overheard Montsi telling someone that he is dealing with academic issues (whatever that means). Don't know why the others didn't play but I assume that since Ozolins and Mroz only arrived on campus a few days ago that they weren't likely going to play. They were dressed.

BRucks · Jan 22, 2022

BRucks said:
Attended the tOSU match today which we lost 0-4. Tucker has his usual bevy of highly ranked players up and down the lineup. That being said, I came away optimistic. Kenyatte, Montsi, Mroz, Ozolins and Petrov all rode the bench. Petrov had a cast or wrapping on his right wrist but I see in the box score that he played in the later match vs. Chicago State. I overheard Montsi telling someone that he is dealing with academic issues (whatever that means). Don't know why the others didn't play but I assume that since Ozolins and Mroz only arrived on campus a few days ago that they weren't likely going to play. They were dressed.

This article says that Ozolins isn't eligible until next year (needs to establish residency?):

Following 'Last Dance' season, Illini men's tennis enters 2022 'a mixed bag' of experience, young talent

Last year, Illinois men’s tennis had its own version of "The Last Dance." After missing out on a chance for the postseason during the spring of 2020 due to the

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