Indiana men’s tennis suffered two road losses over the weekend to No. 14 Illinois and No. 68 Northwestern, bringing the team back to .500 on the season.
Coming into the weekend, the Hoosiers were 3-4 in conference play and needed to play perfectly to hang with Illinois.
The Hoosiers quickly fell behind in doubles. Redshirt junior Facundo Yunis and his doubles one partner, senior Jip van Assendelft, struggled to keep their serves in and were outmatched quickly. The pair lost 1-6 and gave a preview of what was to come.
Redshirt freshman Aidan Atwood and sophomore Matteo Antonescu, who were playing their second straight doubles match together, struggled as well. They couldn’t find their footing and gave Illinois its first point of the day with another 1-6 defeat. Redshirt junior Sam Landau and sophomore Braeden Gelletich didn’t get through the first half of their match, and were left leading 3-2.
Senior Deacon Thomas, who hadn’t played since the Hoosiers’ match against the University of Memphis on Feb. 15, was put at singles six following the doubles losses. He hit a few winners from the baseline, but Illinois redshirt sophomore Zach Viiala was more consistent and put the Fighting Illini up 2-0 with a 6-3, 6-3 victory.
Gelletich was next to finish, losing 3-6, 2-6. Playing at the doubles four position, it was a similar outcome to Thomas. With just one more loss to end the day for the Hoosiers, Yunis’ second set at singles three sealed the defeat. He dealt out blows and made games close at first, but in the second he struggled to contend in any point and was quickly taken down by Fighting Illini junior No. 37 ranked freshman Gabriel Debru 4-6, 0-6.
Just two days later, Indiana traveled to Evanston, Illinois to finish up its weekend against Northwestern.
This time, Indiana started off well. The No. 68 ranked doubles team of Landau and Gelletich, who are now 5-0 together, got the Hoosiers going with a 6-4 victory. But Indiana wasn’t so lucky in the next two matches.
Yunis and van Assendelft were deep in the trenches. Going back and forth, the pair traded blows with Northwestern juniors Cyrus Mahjoob and Ethan Schiffman, leading to a tiebreak. Meanwhile, at the doubles three position, Atwood and Antonescu were neck and neck in their own tiebreak as well. Yunis and van Assendelft couldn’t manage to hold on, losing 6-7 (6-8). Right after they finished. the Hoosiers’ doubles three squad fell 6-7 (3-7). The missed opportunities gave the Wildcats a 1-0 lead.
Already down early, the Hoosiers needed to rally to have a chance. Yunis’ match was the first to finish. Playing at singles three, he played a hard fought first set, but was taken down easily in the second, losing 5-7, 1-6.
Freshman Aryan Badlani got the nod at singles six. He was 3-3 coming into the day after losing in Indiana’s match against Purdue on March 28. He had a scare in the second set, but he snuck away with the win in tiebreaks, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5).
At singles four, Gelletich improved on his already good day, winning 6-3, 6-3 and tying the match up at 2-2. Next up, Atwood kept the Hoosiers' streak alive after he lost his first set. His resilience pushed him through the match as he won 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.
But after Atwood’s win, things took a turn for the Hoosiers. In singles two, van Assendelft was in a gritty match that went to tiebreaks in each of the first two sets. He lost a tiebreak in his doubles match earlier and faced a similar result in singles. He lost 6-7 (4-7), 6-7 (3-7), leaving it up to singles one to determine the result.
Landau controlled the pace of the match early and cruised to a 6-1 first set victory. Northwestern’s Mahjoob tied it up with a 6-4 victory in the second set, and in the third Landau couldn’t keep up with the near alley shots and lost 6-3. The Hoosiers couldn’t hold on to a 3-2 lead to close out an 0-2 weekend.
Indiana will return home to take on Wisconsin at 4 p.m. Friday at the IU Tennis Center in Bloomington.
