Tennessee tennis won the first match of ITA Kickoff Weekend, besting Illinois, 4-2.
The No. 14 Vols (4-1) entered the tournament after a road loss at No. 4 Wake Forest, and righted the ship Saturday. The Fighting Illini (0-1) lost their first match of the season.
Tennessee dropped the point in doubles to start the afternoon, but came back to win four points in singles. The Vols saw Jan Kobierski and Alan Jesudason step up when they were down early in doubles, but Tennessee lost two close matches to give Illinois the point.
Veterans Shunsuke Mitsui and James Newton looked to bounce back on the doubles court after their first defeat in Winston-Salem last weekend but couldn’t stave off the Illini.
Mitsui and Alex Kotzen dropped their match to Tyler Bowers and Zach Viiala, 6-4. Mitsui stayed cold in pairs and now has his second straight doubles loss for only the third time in his Tennessee career.
Newton and Moreno also suffered a loss, taking a 6-4 defeat at the hands of William Mroz and Jeremy Zhang. It is also Newton’s second straight loss and his fifth overall, while giving Moreno his seventh doubles loss on the season.
“We were flat to begin with,” associate head coach Matt Lucas said. “Just coming out not hitting our shots, not hitting our serves. These guys have been in this moment before, most of them, so I think it was just we weren’t really ready.”
Kobierski and Jesudason picked up Tennessee’s only doubles match, a turnaround for the pair after their slump the previous two matches. It is the pair’s second doubles win of the year and the second for Kobierski individually, while it was Jesudason’s 10th.
“For them, huge,” Lucas said. “They’ve had a tough schedule to begin with for one and it was good to see them bounce back and improve on the areas we’ve been working on.”
Illinois entered the match hot off four singles wins from their own Fighting Illini Invite and struggled early against Tennessee but rallied late to send four matches to a third set. There, the Vols finished off the Illini, clinching the match win.
Kotzen clinched the first point for the Vols while Mathis Debru clinched Illinois’s second point with a 6-4, 6-0 singles win over Ian Cruz. Mitsui clinched Tennessee’s second match point with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 victory over Mroz.
“Alex beat a really good player on No. 1, which is what Alex does,” Lucas said. “He’s one of the top players in the country, so we expect that out of him and that’s the expectation from him.”
The senior’s singles win came at a small cost, however. Mitsui sustained several minor injuries during his match with Mroz, taking a hit to the elbow and to his knee.
“He fell near the back tarp, but he was fine going into the match,” Lucas said. “He’s tough as they come, he’ll be good to go,” he said.
Jose Garcia clinched Tennessee’s third point of the afternoon, giving the Vols their first lead of the day and putting them on the edge of a match win. The Knoxville native bested Zhang 7-5, 3-6, 6-1. The win is Garcia’s 10th of the season in singles bringing him to 10-5 so far this year.
“Proud of Jose, a true freshman, getting another big point in a third set,” Lucas said.
Tennessee will face off against Michigan tomorrow at 1 p.m. for the ITA Kickoff Weekend championship.
