Chambana Sun

The Fighting Illini men's tennis team secured victories in both of their matches on Saturday, defeating Northwestern and Saint Louis University with identical scores of 7-0 at the Atkins Tennis Center in Urbana, Illinois. These wins improve the team's record to 14-8 for the season and 4-3 in conference play following their triumph over Northwestern.

"It was a great day of tennis," said head coach Brad Dancer. "We responded well on courts that we lost the first sets against Northwestern and I think that shows some maturity from our guys. It was a day of growing and a step forward and that's where we want our guys to be this time of the season. We gotta keep moving forward and not slide back and that's our challenge for this week."

In doubles play against Northwestern, Mathis Debru and Kenta Miyoshi won 6-4 over Greyson Casey and Presley Thieneman, while Lucas Horve and Tyler Bowers clinched the doubles point with a 6-1 victory over Saiprakash Goli and Nick Herdoiza.

In singles competition, No. 40-ranked Hunter Heck secured a win with a score of 6-4, 6-4 against Thieneman. Redshirt freshman Tyler Bowers defeated Felix Nordby with scores of 3-6, 6-2, 6-1. Alex Petrov clinched the match by overcoming Gleb Blekher with scores of 7-5, 7-6 (7).

Against Saint Louis University, Horve and Bowers began doubles play with a decisive win over Declan Townsend and Theo Ortis at 6-1. Debru and Petrov sealed the doubles point by defeating Jonathan Sadowski and Sebastian Munoz also at 6-1.

Heck finished his singles match swiftly against Luca Lo Nardo with an impressive scoreline of 6-0, 6-0. Jeremy Zhang followed suit by beating Munoz at 6-2, 6-2. Debru then clinched the overall match after winning against Sadowski with scores of 6-2, 6-4.

The Illini will continue their home stand with upcoming matches against Purdue on April 19th at 6 p.m., followed by Indiana on April 21st at noon CT before heading to Evanston for the Big Ten Tournament scheduled from April 25th to April28th at Combe Tennis Center.