Former Illinois standout Rajeev Ram is taking his tennis prowess to another level. Ram and partner Brian Baker ousted No. 3 seeds Josh Goffi and Tripp Phillips 6-2, 7-6(7) from the semifinals of the Northwestern Mutual USTA Challenger.

"I felt like we pretty much dominated the match at the beginning," Baker said. "We just had a little bit of a hiccup, actually a big hiccup. It's not too many times that you're up two breaks, and lose serve three times."

With the win on Nov. 21, Ram became the first current or former Illini to advance to the finals of the professional event.

"I'm excited for Rajeev and the exposure that his accomplishment gives our program in this event," Illinois head coach Craig Tiley said. "We've been having this event for these types of things to happen and it takes years to build it to that level. We won a national title this year, it took years to get to that point and it takes years to get to this point. Now, we'll continue to build on this."

The building blocks for Tiley's program were building blocks for the young doubles team too. Baker and Ram both made their first Challenger finals appearance at Atkins Tennis Center.

"It is a bigger tournament, but I've been playing this kind of tournament for a while now," Baker said. "It will be something new but it won't be something that will get me riled up."

Despite the mark Ram made in Illinois history, the youngsters couldn't capitalize, falling short in the finals 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 to Bruno Soares and Travis Parrott.

"We were doing well," Ram said. "We were cruising there for a little bit, but they picked it up a little and we just couldn't quite get it done. I think we really had them today, it's just too bad."

Baker agreed.

"We were up a set 4-2, 40-30 and they played a couple good points and we let them come back a little bit," Baker said. "They took advantage of it, got some momentum, and came back in the third. It felt like we were right there and should have closed the door."

For the athletes, their appearance in the finals means more than just prestige and prize money.

"It's a stepping stone," Ram said. "It's not something that I'm going to sit on and be satisfied with, at all. It's just more encouragement for me to keep progressing and keep working hard, for bigger events."

Ram and Baker have both experienced success on the junior level and the Futures circuit, appearing together in the 2002 junior Wimbledon finals together.

"I think we played really well the first set and a half or so," Baker said. "It felt like we dominated it and that we could have won a lot worse than we were winning."

Parrott will also use the tournament to mark his progress. With his doubles victories, Parrott climbed into the top 100 doubles players in the world.

"This is the step it takes to get up to the ATP tour where I want to stay," Parrott said. "I think at times we really clicked and really played some tremendous tennis because Baker and Ram were extremely solid all week. It took a pretty good effort to keep them off balance in those second and third sets."