Men's Tennis Gets First Taste of Ivy League Competition

The Harvard men’s tennis team continued its strong fall season this weekend at the Ivy Plus Invitational in New Haven, where the Crimson had multiple players win their respective singles and doubles flights.

The team, which will aim for its third-straight Ivy League crown in the spring, commenced its fall season last weekend with an impressive showing against top-ranked teams at the Harvard Chowder Fest.

“Everyone is really happy with the weekend,” junior Alex Steinroeder said. “The guys were a little tired from last weekend, but we came back and I thought that everyone was really impressive; especially the freshmen.”

At this weekend’s tournament, Harvard got its first look at its Ancient Eight competition this year, with the exception of Princeton, which finished tied for second in the conference last season.

“It was good to get to see the other Ivy League teams this early in the year,” junior Shaun Chaudhuri said. “It’s fun to see how they look, and to see their new faces.”

In addition to the Ivy teams, the tournament also featured Old Dominion, Army, Binghampton, Marist, St. Johns, and UNC-Wilmington.

The tournament was conducted in a format different from the more team-oriented regular-season matches. The Ivy Plus Invitational was set up in a traditional individual tournament draw, divided up into six different flights.

The Crimson managed to post a successful showing in doubles, despite trying out several new duos as it works its new freshmen into the lineup and attempts to match its doubles prowess from last season, when it took the doubles point in 19 of 25 matches.

Harvard’s top duo of co-captain Casey MacMaster and junior Denis Nguyen, who are ranked No. 20 in the country, continued their run of dominance from last season, scoring a dramatic 8-7 (9-7) win in the Draw A final over the Red Storm’s Erick Reyes and RJ Del Nunzio.

Steinroeder and freshman Brian Yeung had less success in Draw A, falling 8-7 in the first round. In Draw B, sophomores Nick Mahlangu and Kelvin Lam scored two 8-6 victories, but lost in the semifinals, 8-4.

Freshman Sebastian Beltrame and sophomore Nicky Hu lost in the first round, 8-3, but made it to the semifinals of the consolation bracket.

In singles, Nguyen, who plays at first singles for the Crimson, took an easy first-round victory and beat Penn’s Nikola Kocovic 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, in the quarterfinals of Draw A, but fell to Columbia’s Winston Lin, who is ranked No. 54 nationally, 6-5, 6-3. Chaudhuri beat Binghampton’s Robin Lesage, 5-6, 6-1, 6-0, in the first round, and followed that up with a 6-5, 6-2 win over the Monarchs’ Carlos Lopez Villa. Chaudhuri advanced to the final after his semifinal opponent, the Lions’ Dragos Ignat, retired. The Lion’s Lin won the Draw A singles event in three sets, 6-1, 4-6, 6-1.  

In Draw B, Steinroeder won his first two matches, but fell to the Bulldogs’ Tyler Lu, 6-2, 6-1, in the semifinals. But the freshman Yeung, playing in his second tournament, reached the final, beating Old Dominion’s Jonas Kuwert, the Bearcats’ Thomas Caputo, and Columbia’s Ashok Narayana on the way. Yeung lost 6-5, 6-3, in the finals to Lu.

Freshman Andrew Ball fell 6-5, 6-3 in his first-round match, but his classmate Beltrame emerged on top of Draw C, earning four straight-set victories, including a 6-3, 6-2 win in the finals over Cornell’s Colin Sinclair.

“We have such a strong freshman class, and they’re improving every weekend,” Chaudhuri said. “They’re really competing hard, and it’s encouraging to see them do so well so early. Sebastian played amazing this weekend.”

In Draw D, Harvard had yet another player win his flight. This time, it was sophomore Kelvin Lam, who took three straight-set victories to make it to the final, where he defeated the Lions’ Max Schnur, 4-6, 6-5, 6-4.

Despite the encouraging play this weekend against Ancient Eight rivals, the Crimson is not reading too much into its performance.

“We have a lot of work to do if we want to win the league come spring time,” Steinroeder said. “It’s good to measure yourself against the Ivy teams, but not to look too much into the results because it’s hard to tell where they’re at right now.”

After two straight tournaments, Harvard will take two weekends off before heading down to the important Aggie Fall Tournament in College Station, Texas, which is one of the biggest tournaments of the fall season.

“This weekend was a great stepping stone for us,” Chaudhuri said. “Getting the first taste of what the Ivy season will be like gives us a destination and goal in mind. We saw the teams compete, and now it’s time to go back to the drawing board.”

—Staff writer Justin C. Wong can be reached at justincwong94@gmail.com.