M. Tennis Upsets No. 10 Wildcats at ITA Indoors

Sometimes, the best damage is done in the consolation rounds. Just ask the Harvard men’s tennis team.

After an opening round loss to No. 3 Florida dropped No. 31 Harvard into the consolation rounds at the USTA/ITA National Men’s Team Indoor Championships in Seattle, Wash. on Thursday, the Crimson made waves in the loser’s bracket on Friday, decisively upsetting the No. 10 University of Kentucky 4-1.

Harvard’s good fortune, however, didn’t last. In a back-and-forth battle that began Saturday night and lasted until approximately 1:35 a.m. PST, the Crimson fell 4-2 to the host No. 11 Washington Huskies during the wee hours of Sunday morning.

The USTA/ITA Championships was the first major men’s team tennis tournament of 2004.

No. 11 Washington 4, No. 31 Harvard 2

Harvard players didn’t get much sleep Saturday night in Seattle, as they jumped to an early lead but lost after a fatiguing, three-hour battle against the Huskies.

Down one game in the doubles point, Harvard senior Mark Riddell and sophomore Brandon Chiu—playing at No. 2—knotted doubles at one game apiece after defeating Washington’s Christoph Palmanshofer and Peter Scharler, 8-6. Harvard co-captain David Lingman and junior Jonathan Chu, ranked No. 32 in the country, took on highly-rated Husky pair No. 11 Alex Slovic and Alex Vlaski with the final doubles match—and the first point—on the line.

Lingman and Chu were down 4-6 in the match before rallying to force an 8-8 tiebreaker against the Washington team. In the tiebreaker, Lingman and Chu made quick work of Slovic and Vlaski—both of whom are ranked in the top 100 in the nation individually—7-3. Vlaski is ranked No. 2 nationwide.

Lingman complimented the Washington pair and accredited his own team’s success to good chemistry.

“I think we’ve come to know each other’s games,” said Lingman of his relationship with Chu. “I think by playing together over the last year, we’ve gotten a lot better.”

Lingman and Chu also performed well receiving, breaking several points on the way to victory.

“At 6-7, we broke them,” Lingman said. “We were trying to break until then. That’s what you do in doubles, you work hard and wait for an opportunity.”

Leading the Huskies 1-0 after the doubles round, Harvard had the early momentum. But Washington stole it back, boosted by a boisterous home crowd.

Both freshman Jack Li, who had keyed Harvard’s victory over Kentucky the day before, and Chu, fresh off doubles success, lost in straight sets to Washington’s Scott Felsenthal and Slovic, respectively.

Riddell tied the match at 2-2 after defeating Palmanshofer, 6-0, 7-6. That was Harvard’s last score of the tournament. Scharler defeated Harvard senior Chris Chiou, 7-6, 7-5, to take a 3-2 lead and Washington’s Daniel Chu delivered the decisive blow moments later, defeating Harvard co-captain No. 78 Cliff Nguyen, 7-6 (5), 6-4.

No. 38 Lingman’s match against No. 2 Vlaski was suspended after the clincher.

“I thought we had a good chance to beat Washington,” Lingman said. “We started off getting breaks on four of the first six. But sometimes matches turn.”

No. 31 Harvard 4, No. 10 Kentucky 1

The Crimson steamed out of the gate against the Wildcats on Friday, blistering the nation’s 10th-ranked team up and down the lineup on the way to a 4-1 win.

Thankfully for Kentucky, the score was not as bad as it could have been. Both Riddell and Chiou were on the verge of upsetting individually nationally-ranked Wildcats when No. 78 Cliff Nguyen delivered the deciding blow against Kentucky’s Rahim Esmail, suspending the two matches.

Overall, Harvard won five matches on the day and lost only one point, when No. 38 Lingman was defeated at number one by Kentucky’s No. 16 Jesse Witten. The Crimson also lost one doubles match, but that was inconsequential.

Lingman and Chu set the tone for the day by defeating Witten and Esmail in the first doubles match, 8-5. After Riddell and Chiu lost at number two, Harvard’s Li and Chiou keyed a victory over Kentucky’s Evan Austin and Alex Hume, taking the first point of the day.

After Witten defeated Lingman in singles to tie the score at one, Chu claimed the lead for Harvard by decisively upsetting No. 81 Austin, 6-3, 6-1. Li, playing for Harvard at No. 6, put the pressure on Kentucky by winning his match against Hume, 6-4, 6-1.

Up 3-1, a victory by No. 78 Nguyen would complete the Harvard upset. But after he lost the first set, 1-6, Nguyen’s chances looked bleak. The junior looked one court over for inspiration.

“I was right next to Chris [Chiou],” Nguyen said. “He started to come back in his game, and I started to come back in mine. I think we fed off each other as we were coming back.”

Nguyen finished his last two sets in near dominant fashion, defeating Esmail, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. The victory clinched Harvard’s upset win over the Wildcats, the Crimson’s first team victory of the year.

Nguyen said the Crimson’s team play over the last two days of the tournament was much improved after the loss to Florida.

“We came out kind of flat against Florida,” he said. “But we brought out a lot of energy against Kentucky. We were all pumped for it.”

Lingman said the team’s showing at the tournament was a “great start to the season,” displaying some cautious optimism about the coming spring.

—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.