SEASON RECAP: Men's Tennis

The Harvard men’s tennis team enjoyed early success despite its youth, but injuries and inexperience ultimately impeded the run of the Crimson (13-11, 5-2 Ivy) through the Ivy season, keeping the team from reaching the NCAA tournament for the fifth consecutive year.

“It was an up-and-down season,” was the only way freshman Ashwin Kumar could describe it.

Sure, there were “some really high highs,” like Harvard’s third consecutive ECAC tournament title in early October and a 4-2 February upset of No. 12 USC at the ITA/USTA Indoors.

But there were also, Kumar admitted, “some really low lows,” such as the Crimson’s 5-2 loss to Columbia—Harvard’s first Ivy League defeat in nearly three years—and the Crimson’s ultimate third-place finish in the Ancient Eight standings.

Initially, senior Martin Wetzel and co-captain Jonathan Chu were nearly “a lock” in the top two singles spots, something the latter deemed “really important to the team.”

“It gave [the other players] confidence so they could play freely,” Chu said, “and good things happen when you go out there and have faith in your teammates.”

Wetzel suffered an early, season-ending shoulder injury, however, and during a February doubleheader, Chu noticed the first signs of an abdominal tear that would plague him for the remainder of the year and keep him from playing singles matches during Harvard’s spring break trip to California.

The co-captain resumed the top singles spot as soon as the Ivy season began, and in Wetzel’s absence, the second and third slots were quickly occupied by freshmen Kumar and Dan Nguyen—two rookies who, though they “took some losses that we might not have [had, had we] been playing No. 4 or No. 5,” said Kumar, they “got match toughness and experience for the next couple years.”

With the graduation of five seniors last spring, said Chu, “many had originally anticipated that this would be a year of rebuilding for us.”

And so, despite some fall success, “heading into the Ivy season, we were no longer the favorites,” Chu said. “That’s the first time in a while that’s happened—the first time in my four years.”

After the loss to Columbia, Harvard had to win every remaining match for a chance at the NCAA tournament. When perpetual rival Brown beat the Crimson in Cambridge, though, the latter was all but eliminated.

Season over.

For Chu, though, who had already qualified for the NCAA singles tournament—and the doubles draw, with Kumar—that disappointment did, at least, clear the calendar.

“I don’t want to say it was a blessing in disguise,” Chu said, “but not making the team event did give me more time to focus individually.”

Chu would burn through the draws, advancing to the Final Fours in both singles and doubles. He was the only player to make both semifinals, a feat Kumar deemed “simply amazing.”

In the process, Chu knocked off the No. 3 singles player in the country and took the top competitor, Baylor’s Benedikt Dorsch, to 4-4 in the third set before losing 6-4.

Chu and Kumar took the nation’s best doubles duo to a third set as well, and though both runs were unlikely based on rankings, they were just what the doctor ordered for the veteran who had spent his senior season playing though pain and disappointment.

Chu had been planning to call his tennis career quits at graduation, “but the tournament,” he said, “it definitely rekindled a desire for me.”

And for Kumar, who will one day lead the team Chu has left him, “the way Jon finished his college career almost salvaged our season. It brought our season from mediocre to exceptional.”

—Staff writer Rebecca A. Seesel can be reached at seesel@fas.harvard.edu.