Despite having just played about six hours of tennis against the likes of Illinois State and Western Illinois last Sunday, postgame chatter among members of the Wisconsin men’s tennis team revolved around a different team from the southerly neighbor state: the Fighting Illini of Illinois.

To kick off its Big Ten season, No. 34 Wisconsin will play host to No. 11 Illinois on Sunday in what will likely be one of the most anticipated matches of the season.

The match that the Badgers have been waiting for has finally arrived.

“This is one we definitely look forward to every year,” assistant coach Evan Austin said. “They’re generally a pretty strong team and they compete hard. We like the opportunity to play against those guys — they always have a bunch of ranked guys. It’s one that you circle on your schedule and look forward to being in.”

The Badgers (10-4) are currently 9-0 this season at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium and will provide the next leg in the Illini’s grueling schedule.

In all 13 matches this season, the Illini have faced a top-35 ranked team and they have kept their heads above water with a more-than-respectable 7-5 (1-0) record with all five losses coming from top 10 teams.

With such a consistently tough schedule to keep Illinois in shape, Austin doesn’t expect the Illini to be caught off guard against another highly ranked team in Wisconsin, or the nature of the important match itself.

“They always play a tough schedule — you always feel like they’re match-tough,” he said. “They’ve got a lot of experienced guys, so we know we’re not going to surprise them at all — they’re going to come in and be ready to play.”

Illinois stands as the highest ranked team Wisconsin has yet faced. The Badgers, however, have already demonstrated that they can tip over a top 15 team when they claimed a 4-3 victory over then No. 13 Florida State in the third match of the season.

Wisconsin and Illinois have traded blows over their past two meetings, with each team winning a match at their respective home courts.

In last year’s match, Wisconsin was ousted by Illinois, 4-3. UW lost the doubles point and was unable to recover in singles. This year, Illinois again brings a tough doubles unit, sporting three ranked pairs that are variations of mainly two players, Dennis Nevolo and Marek Czerwinski. Last Sunday after the doubleheader, head coach Greg Van Emburgh mentioned that doubles would be a focal point in practice leading up to their date with Illinois.

“We want to keep working on our doubles to keep them sharp [to] make sure the teams that are out there are going to compliment each other really well,” he said. “I think we’re really close to doing that.”

In singles, a total of six ranked players between the two teams will square off. Illinois’ Nevolo is the highest of their three distinguished players at No. 36 and is joined with No. 64 Czerwinski and No. 77 Abe Souza.

No. 13 senior Moritz Baumann, who was faced with a small shoulder injury at the beginning of the year, appears to be back in top form for the conference opener for Wisconsin, as he has won his last three singles matches.

Junior Marek Michalicka, No. 25, who has played at the No. 1 position in his last two matches, will aim to extend his perfect 10-0 mark against the Illini. His motivation to do so, however, is to help his team achieve the bigger picture: a conference title.

“This is, first of all, our first conference match of the season,” he said. “We set our goal to win the Big Ten and if we want to win the Big Ten we have to win this match for sure. Illinois is a big rival, and we want some revenge this year. So, we are just trying to do everything possible to win on Sunday.”

Several players, as well as Van Emburgh, noted the extra dose of confidence the team picked up in last Sunday’s doubleheader will be vital in their match against the Illini. When asked about their chances following the double feature, senior Luke Rassow-Kantor was positive that his team could “take them out.”

With that assuredness in hand, Rassow-Kantor believes it’s all up to execution to decide the winner.

“You have to have that confidence because we have such a tough schedule,” he said. “We have the talent, it’s just going out there and actually doing it. If we play the way I think we can, we could definitely get a bunch of wins.”