Men's Tennis Opens on Two Fronts

CHICAGO – What can coach Matt Brothers and his DePaul men's tennis team do for an encore?

They open the 2021-22 fall tournament season on Friday looking to duplicate their unprecedented success last spring when the Blue Demons won their first BIG EAST title and secured their first automatic berth into the NCAA Championship.

DePaul will compete on two fronts over the weekend. The majority of the team will head to West Lafayette, Ind. for the Purdue Fall Invite. Brothers' team will match up with the host Boilermakers, Ball State and IUPUI in the three-day event.

There will be doubles matches Friday beginning at 3 p.m. (CT), two rounds of singles on Saturday and one round of singles on Sunday.

Meanwhile, junior standout Vito Tonejc and highly rated freshman Marino Jakic will travel north of the border for the prestigious Milwaukee Tennis Classic. This will be the 45th year of the tournament that annually attracts the top players in the country.

That is an apt description of Tonejc, believed to be the first DePaul men's tennis player to earn a preseason national ranking from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). The junior from Zagreb Croatia will begin the season ranked No. 97 in the ITA's Top 125.

Tonejc may have actually begun registering on the ITA's radar last season when he became the first Blue Demon to ever be honored as the ITA National Player of the Week.

He went on to lead DePaul to the conference title and was named BIG EAST Player of the Year by the league's coaches.

Tonejc and Jakic will begin play Saturday and will team up in doubles. The Milwaukee Classic has 32 select players in the singles field and 16 doubles teams. All competitors are guaranteed two matches.

Results and recaps can be accessed at depaulbluedemons.com.

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Players Mentioned

Marino Jakic

Vito Tonejc

DePaul University Athletics