Chambana Sun

No. 23 Illinois faced a setback at home with a 4-1 loss to UCLA in a tennis dual held at the Atkins Tennis Center on Friday night. This marks Illinois' first home defeat of the season, bringing their overall record to 9-6 and their Big Ten play record to 3-2. Meanwhile, UCLA improved its record to 5-6 overall and maintained an undefeated conference play record at 3-0.

The Illini's Tyler Bowers and Kenta Miyoshi secured their third consecutive win in No. 1 doubles, defeating Alexander Hoogmartens and Giacomo Revelli with a score of 6-2. Despite this early success, UCLA claimed victories in the remaining two doubles matches, taking a 1-0 lead into singles competition.

In singles action, UCLA extended its lead with wins at No. 4 and No. 5 positions. Illinois managed to narrow the gap when Mathis Debru triumphed over Giacomo Revelli in straight sets at No. 6 singles, marking his fifth consecutive singles victory and improving his dual play record to 10-2 this season.

Debru broke serve for the first time in the seventh game of the opening set and managed to secure it after overcoming a challenge in the tenth game, winning it 6-4. In the second set, after being broken early, Debru broke back twice to claim another 6-4 win.

UCLA clinched the dual match victory with Emon van Loben Sels defeating Jeremy Zhang at No. 3 singles.

The final results were: No. 41 UCLA defeated No. 23 Illinois by a score of 4-1.

Next up for Illinois is a home match against USC on Sunday afternoon, beginning with doubles play at noon CT.