M. Tennis Crushes Penn, Princeton

The Harvard men's tennis team (17-4, 4-0 Ivy) picked up two convincing victories at Penn and Princeton this weekend to maintain its undefeated overall Ivy record.

Both the Quakers and Tigers hold national rankings in the top 75.

"We were very happy to pick up the win against Princeton," senior Mike Passarella said. "They were most likely our toughest match until NCAAs."

But the good news for the Crimson doesn't stop there. In the official ITA National Team Tennis Rankings released today, Harvard has jumped six spots to claim the No. 17 ranking. The rankings take into account all matches played up to April 12, so the victories against Penn and Princeton were not included.

"We don't look too much at the rankings," Passarella said. "Ideally, we would like to finish in the top 16 because it would make our road easier in regionals. But we don't have control over them."

In addition to moving up in the team rankings, Harvard remains atop the individual rankings list. With a 46.43 point ranking average, James Blake remained the No. 1 ranked singles player in the country--a position he has held since December 8. The No. 2 ranked player, Florida's Jeff Morrison, garnered a 32.01 point ranking average, over fourteen points below Blake. Co-captain Kunj Majmudar dropped eight spots to No. 53 in singles, while junior John Doran climbed to No. 93.

In doubles, Blake and co-captain Kunj Majmudar remained No. 2 in the nation.

On Friday, Harvard took four singles matches and swept the doubles round to defeat Princeton 7-2.

Playing like the country's top player, Blake cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over the Tigers' Kyle Kliegerman. Also winning in straight sets, Majmudar beat Judson Williams 6-4, 6-4 in the No. 3 position.

At No. 2--after falling behind an early break in the first set to Ahn Ahn Liu--Doran recovered to win the set with a 9-7 tiebreak. Then--with this newfound momentum--he closed out the match, winning the second set, 6-4.

Also prevailing in a tight match, Passarella defeated Patrick Sweeney 7-6 (6), 6-4, at the No. 5 singles slot.

"It was nice to be playing well again," Passarella said. "I lost [to Sweeney] freshman year, and then beat him sophomore year, so it was nice to win the third time around."

In doubles action, Harvard tried a new lineup partnering: Doran and Passarella at No. 3 doubles. And the move paid off, as the pair dominated the Tigers' Scott Borenstein and Jeff Schacter, 8-3.

"The new combination worked really well in both matches this weekend," Passarella said.

At the No. 2 position, junior Joe Green and sophomore Scott Clark played solidly in defeating Liu and Sweeney, 8-5.

Completing the doubles sweep for the Crimson, Blake and Majmudar earned a hard-fought 9-7 win over Kliegerman and Woo.

On Saturday, Harvard traveled to Philadelphia to take on the Penn, and the result was a 7-0 trouncing of the Quakers.

"We won this match pretty easily," Passarella said. "Even sitting out two of our top six players."

After being forced to play indoors against Princeton due to rain, Harvard encountered slightly better weather conditions against Penn.

By sweeping the Quakers in doubles, Harvard repeated its performance against Princeton.

At No. 1, Blake and Majmudar crushed the Quakers' Dominic Rioux and Brett Meringoff, 8-0. Meanwhile, Green and Clark scored an 8-2 victory against Uday Garg and Joe Zupan at the No. 2 position. And Passarella and Doran teamed up again at No. 3 to cruise past Eric Sobotka and Tyler Anderson, 8-4.

The sweeping sensation extended to singles play. Majmudar and Green sat out to give other Crimson players some match time. Blake defeated Sobotka 6-2, 6-4 at No. 1 singles, and Passarella followed with a 6-1, 6-3 victory at the No. 3 slot over Dominic Rioux--who had beaten Passarella last year. At No. 4, Clark dominated Brian Barki 6-4, 6-3, while Doran fought to a 6-3, 7-5 win over Jordan Szekely at No. 2.

Harvard looks to continue its unbeaten Ivy streak this Friday in its final home match of the season against Brown and again on Sunday against Yale, who boast what is probably the third strongest team in the Ivies.