Men's Tennis Drops Road Match at Illinois

Saturday, April 13

Urbana-Champaign, Ill.

12 p.m. CT

Northwestern

Illinois

Photo by: Tyler Keim / Northwestern Athletics

Men's Tennis Drops Road Match at Illinois

4/13/2024 3:40:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

URBANA, Ill. - The No. 67 Northwestern Wildcats fell 7-0 to the Illinois Fighting Illini on Saturday in Urbana. The loss moved the 'Cats to 8-16 overall, including a 2-5 mark in conference play.

The Illini (13-8, 4-3 B1G) controlled the match from wire to wire, beginning with the doubles point. They took matches on the second and third courts, winning 6-1 and 6-4 respectively. At #1 doubles, the No. 48 ranked pairing of Gleb Blekher and Felix Nordby were nearly even with their opponents, 4-5, when their match went unfinished.

When it came to singles, the 'Cats played tough through the first set. Nordby and Max Bengtsson both took leads with a 6-3 set-one victory apiece. Blekher and Greyson Casey both forced an extra game in their first sets, but both eventually fell, 5-7. Saiprakash Goli also took his first set to the wire before dropping the tiebreak 7-6 (7-3).

From there, Illinois began to gain momentum. Casey won his second set 6-1, but dropped set three 4-6 to give Illinois the point from #6 singles. The Illini won straight-set victories at both of the top courts, though Blekher did take his second set to tiebreak before falling 7-6 (9-7). After winning the first sets, Nordby and Bengtsson both dropped their next two. The final point came from #3 singles, where Goli won the second set on a 7-6 (7-2) tiebreak, then dropped the super tiebreak set 2-10.

The 'Cats will be back home next weekend for their final dual matches of the season - No. 69 Indiana on Friday and Purdue on Sunday for Senior Day. Action against the Hoosiers will begin at 6 p.m. and first serve against the Boilermakers is scheduled for noon.