M. Tennis Finishes Virginia Roadtrip With Two Wins

The No. 29 Harvard men’s tennis team wrapped up an impressive road trip on Sunday with a victory against No. 22 Virginia Commonwealth University at the Thalhimer Tennis Center, 5-2. Just a day earlier, the Crimson had posted a tight victory over No. 64 William and Mary, 4-3.

The weekend featured solid performances by all of the Crimson players, most notably freshman Dan Nguyen, who played his first dual matches of the season after coming off injuries in the fall.

“It is always nice to get victories on the road,” said co-captain Jonathan Chu. “We’re very happy to come home with two victories.”

HARVARD 5, VCU 2

It was obvious in their match against VCU that the Harvard players were coming into their own, both physically and mentally. The Crimson (3-3) took five of the six singles matches against the Rams (9-3), though some of the victories were not only close, but come-from-behind affairs.

“The whole thing was tremendous,” said Harvard coach Dave Fish ’72. “It was a very good win for us. The team is headed in the right direction.”

“We stress conviction and being clear how our game style is,” Chu said. “[This way] we’ll be a very tough team to beat.”

In the doubles matches against VCU, Chu and junior Brandon Chiu lost in the tiebreak to Arnaud Lecloerec and Daniel Lohff, 9-8, even though they came within two points of winning the match before the Rams duo forced it into the tiebreak. Also falling in the tiebreak were co-captain Jason Beren and senior Martin Wetzel, who were defeated by Marton Ott and Sebastian Ripoll, 9-8.

Despite these disappointing losses however, Harvard came back strong in the singles matches to seal its victory.

Among the six singles matches played, three featured tiebreakers and one went into the third set. Playing in the first position, Wetzel came out firing by downing his opponent, 6-0, in the first set, before dispatching him 7-6 in a second set tiebreak.

“It was a pretty amazing start,” said Fish, when asked about the 6-0 first set. “And it wasn’t as if the other player was playing badly.”

Chu, playing in the second position, won his match after his opponent forfeited due to an injury. Nguyen finished off his opponent in straight sets, and freshman Ashwin Kumar clinched the Crimson victory by winning his match against Ott in the third set.

Speaking of the freshman players, Chu said, “I’m very happy with the way they’re coming along. We continue to look forward to seeing great things from them.”

Kumar’s victory was perhaps the highlight of the day. He fell behind early, losing the first set, but came back to win the second set in a tiebreak. He finally overwhelmed his opponent in the third set, 6-3, clinching the victory for his team.

“Ashwin is a dominant serve-and-volley type player,” Fish said.

“He was down a set and fought hard to come back,” Chu added. “Good things happen when you fight hard.”

VCU’s only victory came against sophomore Scott Denenberg, who, despite the loss, battled well for the entirety of the match. He was down 1-5 in the second set before coming from behind to force a tiebreak, which he eventually lost.

Sophomore Shantanu Dhaka recorded the fifth Crimson victory in straight sets.

HARVARD 4, WILLIAM AND MARY 3

On Saturday, Harvard’s victory against William and Mary (4-7) at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center started off the weekend on a positive note, and it provided the Crimson with the confidence it needed in its match against the tougher Rams yesterday.

“[The match against William and Mary] wasn’t as close as the score looked,” Fish said. “We won the singles matches pretty convincingly. It wasn’t that close a match, in terms of our guys being tested.”

Harvard went undefeated in all three doubles matches. Chu and Chiu, playing in the first position, defeated Cojanu and Colin O’Brien, 8-6, while Beren and Wetzel won their match comfortably, 8-4. Kumar and Nguyen won the third match, 8-6.

In the singles matches, Chu defeated the Tribe’s Jeff Kader, 6-4, 6-2, while Kumar defeated Alex Cojanu, 6-4, 7-6.

The most encouraging sign on Satuday was Nyugen’s performance as he overwhelmed Kavi Sid, 6-2, 6-0.

Despite his relative inexperience, Nguyen came up big for his team.

“Nguyen’s got a very powerful game,” Fish said. “[Because of injuries] we’ve tried to bring him back slowly. He’s going to pick up a lot of experience playing doubles with Ashwin.”

“Last semester, I was injured most of the time,” Nguyen said. “Once this semester started, I’ve been working my way into the lineup. It feels good finally feeling like I can contribute.”