Junior Blake Wins ITA National Award

In a ceremony held Wednesday night at UCLA, Harvard junior tennis player Tom Blake was named the National Player to Watch by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).

One year after being named an All-American, Blake amassed a 34-12 record in singles play, holding No. 1 spot for Harvard in both singles and doubles. The award officially recognizes Blake as one of the rising stars of the national collegiate tennis scene.

This is not the first award Blake has received this season. In leading Harvard to the Eastern Regional Championship, he was selected as the Eastern Intercollegiate Tennis Association (EITA) Player of the Year. Blake was also honored as an All-EITA selection in both singles and doubles this season.

Blake, ranked 23rd nationally, accepted the award hours after being defeated in individual singles competition by 17th-ranked Richard Wernerjhelm of Virginia Commonwealth, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Blake broke Wernerjhelm's serve late in the first set to jump out to a 5-3 lead. Then, facing triple break point in the next game, Blake stormed back to take the set 6-3.

The service break and almost service break were a sign of things to come. The second set saw five breaks of serve in 10 games, with Wernerjhelm coming out on top. Wernerjhelm evened the match when he broke Blake's serve at 4-5 to win the set, 6-4.

Wernerjhelm rode that momentum into the decisive third set with a tough baseline game that Blake could not solve. After breaking Blake's serve in the fourth game to go up 3-1, Wernerjhelm needed only to hold serve the remainder of the match to take the set.