Men's tennis @ Illinois tomorrow at 12 noon, preview

Feb 14, 2025, 10:47 AM

The 8-0 Clemson men's tennis Tigers are off in Illinois this weekend to face the Fighting Illini is a big road test. Match is at 12 noon on Saturday.

Illinois has some legacy as a tennis program as they have a national title from the 2000s and are always a challenger for the Big Ten title. They are very tough at home and get a lot of fans to their very nice indoor court facility.

This year Illinois has only played four matches so far as they have a different scheduling strategy, just play good teams with no cupcakes. They are 2-2 so far. W 4-2 vs Auburn, W 4-2 vs North Carolina, L 2-4 to #14 Tennessee and L 1-4 to #7 Duke.

Projected Illinois lineup:

1. #13 Kenta Miyoshi, JR. Kawasaki, Japan
2. #42 William Mroz, JR. Brandenton, FL
3. Jeremy Zhang, SO. Sydney, Australia
4. #79 Tyler Bowers, SO. Bloomington, IL
5. Mathis Debru, SR. Grenoble, France
6. Zach Viiala, FR. Perth, Australia

The main test here for Clemson will be the rowdy away crowd. We have gotten big wins over SC and MSU but they were both at home with crowds behind them. This will be the opposite.

Illinois has good individual talent can certainly win this match. They have been poor in doubles so far this year so I would favor Clemson in doubles.

Looking forward to seeing how Noa Vukadin (who is now ranked #51 nationally) does at #1 vs Miyoshi who is a top 15 player. If he can beat another top player we can start talking about him as a national top 20 type player.

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Re: Men's tennis @ Illinois tomorrow at 12 noon, preview

I think it is.

So the did not release new rankings this week

Which we would have easily been top 25 in because they wait until after the national indoors (this weekend) and then do the first rankings of the year. The ones that really matter.

Every year the 1st computer rankings of the year are wildly different. We currently have no losses and top 25 wins over MSU and SC. Plus decent ranking top 50 wins over Memphis and FAU.

The win over SC will lose some steam because they are going to drop like a rock in the computer rankings (no wins over any top 100 team right now for them) so that’ll take some of our points away.

If we beat Illinois I bet we will be inside the top 20, mayeb even top 15. Lose to them and it’ll likely be around 25. But can’t say for sure until the entire rankings are calculated

Men's tennis @ Illinois tomorrow at 12 noon, preview

Re: Men's tennis @ Illinois tomorrow at 12 noon, preview

I think it is.

Rankings?

So the did not release new rankings this week

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