M. Tennis Excels at ITA Regionals

The Harvard men’s tennis team demonstrated its depth again this weekend at the ITA Region I Championships held at Princeton University this weekend, led by finalists in both the singles and doubles draws.

Players from 52 Division I programs throughout the Northeast participated in the tournament, which concluded yesterday. They were competing ultimately for two singles berth and one doubles berth in the ITA National Individual Indoor Championships in Dallas, Texas next week.

Leading the Crimson contingent in the singles draw was freshman Jonathan Chu, the third seed in the tournament. Chu received a bye to advance to the second round on Friday, where he handily dispatched St. Bonaventure’s Mikko Haulos, 6-1, 7-5.

After cruising past Princeton’s Trevor Smith 6-3, 6-4, Chu faced Dartmouth’s Jeff Sloves in the round of 16. At the end of a grueling, hard-fought match, Chu found himself facing match point, trailing 7-5, 4-6, 5-4, 40-30. But Sloves was unable to complete the point and withdrew, allowing Chu to advance to Monday’s quarterfinals. There, he beat ninth-seeded Adam Marchetti of Virginia Tech, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.

In the semifinals, Chu faced his teammate and doubles partner, junior Oli Choo. Choo’s route to the showdown began against La Salle’s Karim Rahimtoola, who only managed to take one game from Choo in a 6-1, 6-0 defeat. Choo then fought to upset Marchetti’s Hokie teammate, tenth-seeded Davor Dupljak, 6-2, 5-6, 7-5 before defeating Josef Novotny of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, Colgate’s Reed Hagmann, and Dartmouth’s Chris Gonyer all in straight sets, 7-6(3), 6-4; 6-3, 6-3; and 6-1, 6-3, respectively, to earn the right to play Chu. The match would prove to be a difficult one for both players.

“We’re kind of like brothers,” said Chu. “It was far and away the toughest match I’ve had to play in a long time.”

Chu, though, got the better of his older teammate to qualify for the final, where he took on the victor of another intrasquad semifinal, Virginia Tech’s Saber Kadiri. Despite saving seven match points, Chu ultimately fell, 6-3, 6-4. Nonetheless, Chu’s performance in the largest tournament of his college career earned him a trip to Dallas, where he will compete against the finalists from eight regional tournaments and the top sixteen ranked singles players.

Chu and Choo, though, were not the only Crimson athletes to turn in successful singles performances. Sixth-seeded co-captain William Lee reached the round of 16 by coming from behind to best Penn State’s Matt Frakes, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 and defeating Yale’s Johnny Lu, 6-4, 6-2 before succumbing to fifteenth-seeded Zach Gallin of Cornell, 1-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Lee’s own doubles partner, sophomore Mark Riddell, advanced to the round of 32 by beating Stony Brook’s Jens Pillgram-Larsen, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, before falling to fourteenth-seeded Akshay Jagdale of Rutgers, 6-2, 6-2.

Sophomore George Turner joined Riddell in the round of 32, defeating Rutgers’ Kevin Bielen, 6-1, 6-2, and upsetting Dartmouth’s Drew Dinkmeyer, 6-4, 6-4 before bowing out of the tournament with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 loss to fourth-seeded Andreas Laulund of Virginia Tech.

Rounding out Harvard’s six singles competitors was eleventh-seeded sophomore Cliff Nguyen, who dropped his second round match to Rutgers’ Greg Schweitzer, 7-6, 6-3.

Harvard was represented in the finals of the doubles draw by the third-seeded tandem of Lee and Riddell. The duo defeated Matt Hane and Matt Treadgold of George Washington, 8-5, Brown’s Chris Drake and Kris Goddard, 8-2, Virginia Tech’s David Emery and Stephane Rod, 9-7, and another Hokie pair, Dupljak and Michael Kurz, 8-5, but seemed out of synch in dropping the final to Brown’s Adil Shamsdin and Nick Goldberg, 8-2.

Harvard’s two other doubles entrants, second-seeded Choo and Chu and Turner and freshman Brent Saiontz, each advanced to the round of sixteen. Choo and Chu beat Marchetti and Alex Poschelides, 8-5, before losing to the eventual champions, 8-5. For their part, Turner and Saiontz topped Penn State’s Roddy Cantey and Brad Nudell, 8-6, and upset Mike Schlappig and Gallin, 8-5, before dropping their match to fourth-seeded Jagdale and Schweitzer, 8-5.

Overall, the event was a successful one for Harvard, whose deep roster bodes well for the spring season.

“It’s a testament to the depth of our team to get through the 96-man singles event and 52-team doubles event to reach the final,” said Assistant Coach Peter Mandeau.

Beyond the seven players that traveled south, though, were several who could not come to Princeton due to limits on the number of participants from one school.

In addition, Harvard’s depth will be further augmented in January with the return of Dave Lingman, who took a year and a half off after his freshman year to participate as an amateur in professional events.

“We probably have ten to twelve guys on our squad that could earn [one of six] singles spots in the spring,” Mandeau said.