Majmudar Adjusts To First Singles Role

Believe the hype.

That's what the Harvard women's tennis team learned last year with the arrival of then-freshman Gina Majmudar.

Majmudar, a Staten Island, N.Y. native, had finished her tennis career at New Dorp High School with a 105-1 record, her loss coming in her very last match. She had won the city singles championship all four years. Her play on the junior circuit had made her the 27th-ranked player nationally in the Girls 18s singles.

Sports Illustrated had caught wind of her exploits and featured her in its Faces in the Crowd section. ESPN had named her a Scholastic Sports America Scholarship Finalist. The Prince Racket Company voted her a National High School All-American.

"I had seen her play in high school," head coach Gordon Graham says. "She had very high rankings--the best in the New York area."

Yes, you could say her reputation preceded her. And, as the Crimson has found out, she is as good as advertised.

Majmudar kicked off her Harvard career by winning her first collegiate tournament, the Harvard Invitational. By the beginning of her sophomore year she was ranked 41st nationally.

"All through high school I used to play not to lose instead of playing to win," said the sophomore Adams House resident. "When I got here I decided I was going to play the way I wanted to and not worry too much if I won or lost. I think that's why I had such a good year last year."

After a successful maiden season at second singles, Majmudar began this year's campaign at first singles. This new role brought with it new responsibilities and burdens.

"There is more pressure on me playing number one," said Majmudar. "There isn't that big a difference in the level of play from first to second singles, but at first singles I feel I have to win."

"Jill Brenner, who played first singles for us last year, took a lot of pressure off Gina last year," Graham said. "Now everyone's gunning for Gina as Harvard's first singles player."

Much of the pressure, Majmudar admits, is self-inflicted.

"I remember how well I played last year, and I put pressure on myself to do better," Majmudar says.

Even with such pressure, Majmudar, a pre-med Environmental Engineering concentrator, still finds playing tennis a release from Harvard's academic strains.

"This semester has been my hardest," says Majumudar, whose present course load includes Math 21a, Physics 11a, and CS 50. "Tennis gives me a break from all of that--a reason to get out of the library."

Tennis, whether as a source of relaxation or as an arena for competition, has always been a large role in Majmudar's life. If anything, it probably reminds her of home.

Majmudar's two older sisters played college tennis for Columbia and her younger brother plays for his high school team.

"Tennis has always been a lot of fun for me," Majmudar says. "Every day after school when my dad came home my whole family used to go to the tennis courts. Tennis made our family a lot closer."

In college Majmudar has found a surrogate family in her teammates on the Crimson squad.

"College tennis is much more team-oriented than junior tennis or even high school tennis," says Majmudar. "The team spends so much time together that the players become your closest friends."