Women’s Tennis Hosts Best of the East

Harvard will be well-represented as the top women’s tennis players from Virginia to Maine descend upon Cambridge this weekend to compete in the Omni Hotels Eastern Regional Championships from Friday to Tuesday.

Six Harvard players—including last year’s singles champion, sophomore Courtney Bergman—have qualified for this weekend’s championships, and all are seeded in the top third of the field of 96.

This weekend’s competition is the qualifying event for the National Indoor Championships Nov. 7 in Dallas, the premier indoor tournament in the country. Only the singles and doubles finalists will qualify for the championships.

Bergman will be seeded second in her quest to defend her title. The sophomore—ranked 29th in the national preseason rankings—said she is cautiously optimistic about her chances.

“Of course I want to win, but I have to take it one match at a time, one point at a time, even,” she said. “Its obviously a goal to make it to Dallas, but you can’t go into the tournament with that in mind.”

Seeded in the No. 5-8 group are sophomore Susanna Lingman—ranked No. 57—and freshman Eva Wang, fresh off a strong performance at the ITA All-Americans two weeks ago.

Wang says her high seed gives her the needed motivation to elevate her game.

“I like having a seed because it gives me confidence, that extra boost,” Wang said.

Wang is also excited to be playing at home for the first time in her collegiate career.

“I’m definitely pumped to be playing here at Harvard with all my friends cheering,” she said.

Also seeded in the top 32 for Harvard are No. 56 sophomore Alexis Martire, freshman Melissa Andersen and captain Sanja Bajin.

Harvard coach Gordon Graham said he is impressed by this year’s “across-the-board talent.”

“We’ve never had three of the top eight seeds in a tournament of 96 singles players before. This is a deep squad,” Graham said.

Doubles are also strong for the Crimson as all three duos are ranked near the top of the 64-team field. The pair of Bergman and Lingman is seeded 2nd overall, while the teams of Wang-Anderson and Bajin-Martire are also seeded in the top eight.

“We have the ability to do very well at this tournament and I’m confident we will,” Bajin said

With all six singles players seeded in the top third its three doubles pairs seeded in the top eight, the Crimson looks to measure itself against the top players in the East.

“Its a great opportunity to see how we stack up against the best in our region,” Graham said. “Its going to be an awfully good, awfully exciting tournament.”

—Contributing writer Sean W. Coughlin can be reached at coughl@fas.harvard.edu.