Back to the Illinois Fighting Illini Newsfeed

Support system key for ex-Illini ahead of Wimbledon semifinal

LONDON — The men's tennis coach's office at Atkins Tennis Center became a popular gathering place on Wednesday morning.

"People kept streaming down," Illinois coach Brad Dancer said.

Dancer could thank a former pupil — and other televisions at Atkins going out for some inexplicable reason — for why folks were jammed in to watch Kevin Anderson's gripping comeback win against Roger Federer in the Wimbledon quarterfinals on the television inside Dancer's office.

Dancer just wrapped up his 13th season in charge at Illinois. The former Illini assistant coach when Anderson started at Illinois in 2004, who later became the Illini's head coach in 2005 before Anderson's college career concluded in 2007, arrived back on the UI campus on Wednesday morning after a family vacation.