Chambana Sun

Illinois men's tennis team is set to commence its 2025 dual schedule at the ITA Kickoff Weekend on January 25-26. The Fighting Illini will face host No. 14 Tennessee in the first round on Saturday at 11 a.m. CT, followed by a match against either Auburn or No. 25 Michigan on Sunday at the Goodfriend Tennis Center in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The ITA Kickoff Weekend features 56 programs aiming to qualify for the ITA National Indoor Championships scheduled for February. A total of 14 schools, one from each of the host sites during the weekend, will join Baylor and SMU—automatically qualified as hosts of the ITA Indoor Nationals—at the event in Texas from February 14-18.

Teams selected their destinations for the ITA Kickoff Weekend through a draft format based on final ITA team rankings from the 2024 season. Illinois, ranked No. 32 in the draft, chose to fill the last opening in Knoxville's region, which includes No. 7 Tennessee (the top seed and host), No. 24 Auburn (the second seed), and No. 25 Michigan (the third seed).

The Illini aim to reach the ITA National Team Indoor Championships for the first time since the 2022-23 season.

In their previous outing, Illinois hosted the Fighting Illini Invite from January 17-19 at Atkins Tennis Center. The event included players from Illinois, then-No. 8 Columbia, and Boise State over three days of singles and doubles matches.

Redshirt junior William Mroz was named Most Outstanding Singles Player after achieving a perfect record in singles play, including a win over No. 111 Jett Middleton. Mroz teamed up with sophomore Jeremy Zhang to secure Most Outstanding Doubles Team honors with an undefeated record on Day 1 of the invite.

Junior Kenta Miyoshi marked his spring debut with a victory over Columbia's No. 42 Nicolas Kotzen and enters dual season ranked No. 14 in ITA singles rankings.

No. 14 Tennessee comes into this weekend with a record of three wins against state rivals before losing to No. 4 Wake Forest on January 19.

No. 25 Michigan won its only dual match so far this season against Ball State on January 11.

Auburn arrives with victories over Mercer and North Alabama.

Historically, Tennessee leads their series against Illinois with ten wins to four losses while Illinois trails Michigan with a series record of 46-70-3 but leads Auburn two games to one all-time.