Mroz advances at ITA All-American Championships

TULSA, OK. – Illinois tennis player William Mroz advanced to the singles qualifiers at the ITA All-American Championships on Sunday in Tulsa. Mroz won three singles matches in pre-qualifying action to earn a spot among 64 student-athletes in the qualifying round today.

Mroz won in straight sets over Auburn's William Nolan, 6-4, 6-2, in his first match in the quallies. Next, he faced Georgia Tech's Nate Bonetto on Sunday morning, cruising to a 6-2, 6-1 win. The redshirt junior played a second match on Sunday afternoon, finishing with another dominant performance, knocking Duke's Oscar Brown 6-1, 6-4,

Sixty-four student-athletes will compete in the singles qualifying bracket, with 16 players advancing to the singles main draw on Wednesday.




Illini tennis player wins title at Battle of the Bay

SNS – Despite dropping his opening singles match, Illinois junior Kenta Miyoshi bounced back with four consecutive victories over ranked opponents to win the singles consolation bracket at Battle In The Bay in San Francisco a week ago today. The No. 42-ranked player in the ITA singles rankings, Miyoshi recorded straight-set decisions in each of those four wins to finish the weekend with a 4-1 record.

Photo: PhotoNews/Clark Brooks

Illinois tennis player Kenta Miyoshi lines up a backhand shot at the 2023 Illini Open. He is ranked 42 in the ITA heading into his junior season.

Miyoshi teamed up with Illini senior Karlis Ozolins in doubles play, while Ozolins also took part in singles action during the four-day event. Unfortunately, the Illini duo fell in straight sets in their opening singles matches. Miyoshi suffered a two-set defeat to Arizona's Zoran Ludoski, 6-4, 6-3.

Meanwhile, Ozolins battled but came up short 6-4, 6-2, in his match to UC Santa Barbara's Dominique Rolland.

Competing in the consolation singles bracket, Miyoshi picked up his first singles win of the season with a 6-2, 6-3 decision over No. 103 Maxi Homberg of Pepperdine.

A day later, he earned his second-ranked win of the weekend with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Spaniard Pedro Vives. Vives ranked No. 37 and a senior at Texas Christian University, completed high school at Rafa Nadal Academy.

One victory away from the consolation finals, Miyoshi took care of business against Arizona's Casper Christensen in straight sets, 6-3, 7-5.

After taking the first set 7-5 against Savriyan Danilov, the Illinois junior dominated the second set to win the title with a 6-2 finish over the San Diego State graduate student from Moscow.



Stringer Things: When should you change your tennis strings

Yuki Mochizuki
Yuki Mochizuki returns a ball during a rally against Cannon Kingsley during the quarterfinal match during the 2023 Illini Open in Champaign. Professional tennis players players start every match with a fresh strings in one or more of their racquets. Restringing a tennis racquet routinely is important for hitting powerful shots with pace and placement during a match.
Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

SNS - The score is 5-4, and your opponent is up 30-15 in the second set. You need to break their serve to tie up the match, hopefully forcing a third set, where you will come back to win. After losing the first set 6-4, you fall in frustration thanks to unforced errors in the last two rallies to an opponent you normally beat easily.

Despite good footwork and technique, nearly every ball after the third game in the first set traveled the length of the court past the baseline.

One of the most overlooked aspects of tennis is the strings. Keeping your tennis racket equipped with fresh strings is essential for maintaining optimal power and control during gameplay. Like regular oil changes, restringing your tennis racquet often or at regular intervals helps players compete at a higher level confidently while avoiding injuries to their wrists, elbows, or shoulders.

After repeated impacts, the tension and elasticity of the strings in a tennis racket gradually decrease. When the strings lose their tension to the point that a ball bounces off the racket unexpectedly, players and racket stringers refer to the strings as "dead." Dead strings lack elasticity, making it more challenging to generate powerful shots and precise ball placement. This is a regular occurrence with polyester strings, also known as "poly".

tennis racquets

If you are playing competitive tennis matches for a high school or college pprogram, or in a competitive recreational league, you will want to restring your racquets often to help you play at your best. A fresh string bed puts consistency, power, and control in the hands of a competitive player, allowing them to make shots with confidence over and over during a match effortlessly.

Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

Bad strings can increase your chances of suffering a repetitive injury to your wrist or elbow. Getting a bad case of tennis elbow can keep you off the courts for weeks. When strings lose a significant amount of tension, most either swing harder, which can strain muscles and joints, or change their swing mechanics.

Restringing also lets you customize your racquet's performance to match your style of play, environment (temperature and humidity), and court conditions (grass, hardcourt, or clay) as well as personal preferences. You can pick different types of strings (material, gauge, tension) that offer specific benefits like durability, spin, or comfort.

A knowledgeable stringer or racquet technician can give you specific recommendations for customizing your string bed for optimal performance. Part science, part alchemy, adjusting the string's tensions, using different types of strings, or combining two different string types, it is relatively easy to find a player's Goldilock setup.

So, how often should you restring your racquets?

Professional and even club players often bring two to seven identical racquets to switch to during a match. Notably, Roger Federer and a few other top professionals switch to racquets to a fresh string job every ball change or seven to nine games. This removes the variable of string degradation to ensure they hit a quality ball on every swing to carryout their game plan.

Your playing style also contributes to how often you need to restring. Players who hit with a lot of topspin or pace put more wear and tear on their strings and may need to restring more often than players who mostly bunt, slice, or chip the ball. The most obvious answer is when you break a string.

What if you are not a frequent string breaker like professional and collegiate players? Generally speaking, there are a couple of other factors players should look at when determining if they need to restring.

Today, there is a wide variety of strings available in the market from major retailers and smaller boutique competitors. What works for a professional player or a teammate may not necessarily work for you. A racquet technician can assist you in finding the right string setup that aligns with your game or style of play while also considering performance and price.

Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

Another obvious indicator is when you start to feel joint pain in the wrist or elbow. Playing with dead strings is detrimental to both performance and your physical health. Usually, you can tell the string bed is dying when you start overhitting consistently or missing targets on the court by a large margin.

If you are playing tennis for a high school sport or in a competitive league like the USTA, at the very least, you should aim to restring every three to six weeks, depending on your style of play and the number of times a week you play. Some players set their restringing intervals based on the number of hours they use a string job.

Someone who only plays twice a week on average for fun or exercise will want to restring every six months. If they are a ball-basher, it would be beneficial to restring every four or five months.


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Sentinel Signature Announcements

Horve and Illini tennis players in the mix for Neitzel Family Open title

Lucas Horve chases down a ball to his backhand
Photo: Sentinel/Clark Brooks
Lucas Horve lines up a backhand shot under pressure during second set action against Benjamin George. Horve, a central Illinois native from Forsyth, defeated George 6-4, 6-1 at today's second-round qualifier at Atkins Tennis Center. The former Illinois standout moves to the main draw to face Noah Schachter, who has enjoyed a career-high ATP ranking of 727.

CHAMPAIGN - Sixteen matches are scheduled for the first-round main draw at the Neitzel Family Open. Seven current and former Illini tennis players are set to compete in singles play on Wednesday.

Kenta Miyoshi will kick the day off for the Illinois Family at 10 am, facing James Tracy. Ranked 898 by the ATP, Miyoshi looks to improve on his professional record of 31-22.

Senior Karlis Ozolins from Latvia will be heading to the baseline with his blazing flat serves on the same court, looking to upset fourth-seed Andre Ilagan at around 11:30 am. Meanwhile, on Court N5 around the same time, Gabrielius Guzauskas, who will also suit up for the Illini for one more season, will be squaring off with third-seeded Cannon Kingsley.

One of the four 1 pm bouts features two former Illini, Alex Petrov and Zeke Clark. The pair have met twice on the pro circuit with the elder Clark owning the series, 2-0.

Two more current Illinois tennis players, Lucas Horve and William Mroz, are scheduled to play at around 2:30 pm. Unranked Mroz, who advanced through the qualifiers, will face ATP veteran Dan Martin in their first career meeting. Martin, a 25-year-old Canadian, has achieved 61 wins against 56 losses in his eight-year journey as a professional player.

A recent University of Illinois graduate, Horve, who is unranked, will face Noah Schachter, with a 7-9 record this season.

Below is Wednesday's order of play at Atkins Tennis Center. Admission and parking are free for the public at the outdoor event.



Live scores and streams for Wednesday’s singles matches can be found HERE, while the full singles and doubles draws are available HERE.



Sentinel Signature Announcements

Neitzel Family Open second-round singles match schedule

CHAMPAIGN - Champaign-Urbana tennis players and fans can watch professional tennis for free this week. The Neitzel Family Open second-round qualifying matches start today at Atkins Tennis Center at 10 am, featuring athletes from around the world and two current University of Illinois players in the International Tennis Federation World Tour-sanctioned event.

Lucas Horve advanced to today's competition after defeating Australian Corey Gaal 7-5, 6-4 in the first round. A wildcard entry, Horve faces Canadian Ben George on court 1.

Also advancing from the Illinois tennis team, Tyler Bower will be on the court late this morning, facing teammate Gabrielius Guzauskas. Bower moved into the second round after Oliver Okonkwo retired in the second set of their first-round match yesterday.

Here is today's order of play for singles. Second-round doubles matches are scheduled to start at 2 pm. All matches are hosted on the east side of the campus tennis facility.

Starting at 10:00:
Benjamin Thomas George (CAN)[4] vs. Lucas Horve (USA)
Alexander Kotzen (USA)[2] vs. Cleeve Harper (CAN)[15]
Gavin Young (USA) vs. Osgar O'Hoisin (IRL)[9]
Connor Bruce (USA) vs. Nicolas Ian Kotzen (USA)[10]

Followed By:
Gabrielius Guzauskas (USA) vs. Tyler Bowers (USA)
Tyler Stice (USA)[7] vs. Adhithya Ganesan (USA)[13]
Kyle Kang (USA)[5] vs. Sam Thompson (AUS)
Aidan Kim (USA) vs. Ilgiz Valiev[14]

Sentinel Morning Briefing |
Boneyard Arts Festival, Illinois Spring Sports Fest this weekend

URBANA - If you are an art lover, you don't want to miss the Boneyard Arts Festival this weekend. The festival starts tomorrow evening and features pop-up galleries and displays in Urbana, Champaign, and even Savoy.

"We have over 20 venues that will be within walking distance," says Elsie Hedgspeth, Director of Operations and Outreach at 40 North in a video shot in downtown Urbana. "Any place turn into a gallery or a performance spot for the weekend."

Here is a list of the artists displaying their work at this festival.

Here is a list of locations and the featured artist(s):


Illini Spring Sports Fest
Spend the entire weekend watching college sports at the University of Illinois this weekend. Starting at 3 p.m. tomorrow with the Fighting Illini women's tennis team taking on Indiana University at Atkins Tennis Center, spectators and sports fans can catch the action from four tennis matches, three softball and baseball games, and the Wieneke Memorial Track & Field Meet on Sunday.


Soccer Showcase rescheduled
The C-U Soccer Consortium Girls Soccer Showcase, which was scheduled for today at Demirjian Park on the U of I campus, has been postponed due to a persistent pattern of rain expected to pass through the Champaign-Urbana area. The event, which was supposed to feature six teams, has been rescheduled for Sunday starting at noon.

The previously scheduled match between St. Thomas More and University High has been updated. University High shall now be competing against Danville High School at noon. Following the first competition, the Urbana Tigers will engage in battle with the Monticello Sages at 2 p.m. The showcase's ultimate game will feature Big 12 and crosstown rivals Centennial and Central facing each other at 4 p.m.




Recent study suggests childhood trauma could haunt Illinois adults for life
New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed 75% of U.S. high school students said they have had at least one adverse childhood experience, or ACE.

Research has shown ACEs can alter a child's brain chemistry and produce a prolonged toxic stress response. Experiencing at least one ACE as a child is linked to having alcohol and substance use problems in adulthood, and chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity.


Stress-free Thanksgiving tips for those short on time this holiday season

While gathering for Thanksgiving is intended to be a joyous occasion, everyone who has hosted the feast knows it can also come with a lot of stress, and expenses.

The good news is that whether you’re a Gen Z-er hosting your first Friendsgiving on a budget or you’re a busy family preparing for guests, there is a lot to be thankful for this year.


Op-Ed |
Tipped wage system isn't working, removing taxes won't save it
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What will? Replacing the subminimum wages that tipped workers make with one fair wage nationwide.

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Is it depression, ADHD or bipolar disorder?
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Still running out front: Unity collects sectional title, SJO qualifies for XC state


MATTOON - The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Class 1A Sectional Cross Country Meet at Lake Land College in Mattoon saw area powerhouse Unity advance to the state meet for the fourth consecutive year, finishing in first place with a score of 79 points. This year’s event, held on Saturday, November 2, took place under cloudy skies and cool conditions, with crip temperatures in the upper-50s at race time.