Harvard Doubles Duo Wins ITA Regionals, Advances to Nationals

The Brookhaven Country Club in Dallas will open its doors next month to one of the gutsiest college tennis doubles teams in the country when Harvard juniors David Lingman and Mark Riddell travel there to compete in the ITA National Doubles Championship.

Thanks to a pair of exciting come-from-behind victories this past week at the ITA Regionals in Philadelphia, Lingman and Riddell managed to upset two of the top teams in the Northeast on their way to the championship.

On Tuesday, the No. 4-seeded Crimson duo faced defending regional champions and No. 1 seeds Adil Shamasdin and Nick Goldberg of Brown. After falling behind early, the Harvard team got back on serve to even the match at 5-5.

Shamasdin and Brown held a 40-love lead in the 11th game when Lingman and Riddell stormed back, breaking Brown’s serve and going up 6-5. The teams then traded the next three games, giving the Crimson an 8-6 win and a berth in the national championships, to be held Nov. 7 to 10.

“The comeback kids did it again,” said Harvard coach David Fish ’72.

“Again” referred to the fact that only the day before, Lingman and Riddell had pulled off a similar stunt, albeit with much less breathing room.

In the semifinal round on Monday, going up against the No. 2 team of Stephane Rod and Laulund from Virginia Tech, the Crimson pair found itself in a huge hole, down 3-6 in the tiebreaker. Lingman and Riddell beared down, however, managing to surprise their opponents by winning five straight points to win the tiebreak 8-6 and thus the match.

The doubles portion of the ITA Regionals featured 48 teams, including two other Harvard squads. Co-captain Oli Choo teamed up with junior Cliff Nguyen and started out hot, beating the top Monmouth squad 8-0 and a team from Dartmouth 8-2 in the round of 32. But the duo ran into Rod and Laulund one round too early, losing 8-6.

Finally, the pair of juniors Chris Chiou and George Turner also lost to a Virginia Tech team in the round of 32, 8-1.

Turner may have lost early in the doubles, but he fared better in singles than any of his other five teammates in the draw. Seeded at No. 21 in the 96-man field, Turner upset two top-10 seeds on his way to the semifinals before he being knocked off by none other than Virginia Tech’s Stephane Rod.

“I’ve always believed I can play at this level,” Turner said. “It was just a matter of proving it at a major tournament.”

The junior started with two easy wins on Saturday before facing a major opponent in No. 9 seed Trevor Smith of Princeton. After a close first set which Turner took 7-5 he slammed the door shut on Smith in the second, winning 6-0 to advance to the quarterfinals.

On Monday he faced Virginia Tech’s Francis Huot, who had just defeated Nguyen in straight sets in the round of 16. Turner got revenge for Harvard, winning a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 match that he could only describe later as “fun.”

But Rod, seeded at No. 10, awaited to exact another blow for the Hokies (since Rod had upset Lingman, the No. 2 seed, two rounds earlier).

Luckily, Turner had watched the end of the Rod-Lingman match on Sunday and knew what to expect out of the big server.

“We’ve seen these guys before,” Turner said of the Virginia Tech team, “so we have a scouting report.”

Unfortunately that report didn’t help Turner enough, and he dropped a 6-1, 6-2 decision.

Three other Crimson players—Riddell, Choo and Chiou—also competed in the singles draw. Chiou came the closest to advancing past the round of 32. He was leading No. 16 seed Shamasdin in the third set before leg cramps set in, and in the end he fell 6-3, 2-6, 7-5.

Sophomore Jonathan Chu—the Crimson’s top player—was unable to play in the Regionals due to a torn stomach muscle he had developed weeks earlier.

—Staff writer Rahul Rohatgi can be reached at rohatgi@fas.harvard.edu.