Waco Futures – Illini Strength in Singles & Big 12 Might in Doubles

The $25K USA F39 Futures in Waco finished up the second round on Wednesday with all remaining players in the doubles draw and six of eight in the singles draw having college ties. TCU junior Cameron Norrie, who is the top seed in the singles draw, came back from a set down to defeat Texas freshman Yuya Ito. Next up for Norrie will be recent Tulane graduate Dominik Koepfer after Koepfer defeated Baylor sophomore Juan Benitez in straight sets.

Former Illinois teammates Jared Hiltzik and Aleks Vukic will face each other in the quarterfinals after each won on Wednesday. Hiltzik hit nine aces and won 74% of the points on his first serve in a 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 6-2 win over Japan’s Naoki Nakagawa. Vukic won just over 50% of the points on recent Texas A&M graduate Shane Vinsant’s serve in a 6-3, 6-3 win. 

The fourth seed Dennis Nevolo (Illinois ’12) came back from a 4-1* first set deficit to defeat Liam Caruana 7-6(4), 6-4. Caruana, who spent a semester at Texas a year ago, had a set point on Nevolo’s 5-6 service game but Nevolo got the hold and stayed in control throughout the first set tiebreak. Nevolo led 3-0 in the second but Caruana got it back on serve until Nevolo broke from 15/40 to close it out. 

Recent Virginia graduate Ryan Shane won 70% of the points on SMU junior Ronald Slobodchikov’s serve in a 6-1, 6-2 win. Next up for Shane is the second seed Netherland’s Tim Van Rijthoven.