Junior Djordje Uskokovic played stellar tennis winning in the No. 1 singles and doubles position while leading the Illinois State mens tennis team to a convincing 7-0 win over Eastern Illinois in Fridays season opener at the Evergreen Racquet Club. This was the second time in the past three years that the Redbirds have shutout the Panthers.
In Uskokovics singles match up he faced off with the Panthers No. 1 player Charles Levaque, Uskokovic won the match (6-4, 6-2) but according to Head Coach Greg Kennett it was much closer than the score implies.
Every team has a solid No. 1 player, said Kennett. So this was a good win for Djordje. He plays at a real high level, but after he wins a few games or the first set, he seems to come out and lose a few games. He did that tonight in the second set going down 2-0, but was able to rally and took the last 6.
Sophomore Alfredo Lagarda continued with his determined play at the No. 4 position as he only dropped a single game in his win over Ryan Blankenbacker (6-0, 6-1).
Lagarda played really well today, he is very confident and feeling good about the way he is playing, said Kennett. He wants to play higher in our line-up and he is earning that by playing hard.
Freshman Luka Marinkovic, who was coming of a loss at Notre Dame, played solid tennis for the Birds at the No. 3 position, beating his opponent Chris Thomas (6-2, 6-1). Sophomore Tim Link, who did not play against the Irish, won his first match of the spring season at the No. 6 position against the Panthers Sean Bush (6-1,6-1).
Kennett was happy to see his team not drop a set to the Panthers, but would like to see more enthusiasm out of his players.
Our focus was good and we played well in general so I was pretty pleased, but I would have liked to have seen some more energy from the team today, Kennett said.
The Redbirds next home match is January 23 against Missouri-Kansas city at 1:00 p.m. at the Evergreen Racquet Club.
