Georgia Sweeps Men's Tennis From NCAAs

The Harvard men's tennis team came so close but ended up so far away.

The No. 13-seed Crimson (25-4, 9-0 EITA) had its season ended on May 23 in Athens, Ga., courtesy of a 4-0 loss to the third-seeded Georgia Bulldogs in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The final score, however, does not indicate how hotly contested the matches between the Crimson and the Bulldogs actually were.

After dropping the doubles point--a point that would prove costly--by a tight margin, Harvard was in position to earn three victories in three of the six singles matches when play was stopped due to Georgia earning its fourth and match-clinching point. Two of the Bulldog's victories, though, came about as a result of what has been the Crimson's primary nemesis throughout the season--injuries.

"[Georgia] has been here [at nationals] a lot of times, and their team has traditionally always been in the top four, but none of their players are at a level that is unbeatable," said Harvard Coach Dave Fish '72. "They are very good, and they have a lot of depth."

It appeared that Harvard was on its way to pulling off the upset when the match kicked off with doubles play. The Crimson's top team of freshman James Blake and junior Kunj Majmudar, who had only played together three times this season, shocked the No. 1 team in the nation of John Roddick and Steven Baldas, 9-7. The win, however, would be Harvard's only doubles victory.

At No. 2 doubles, co-captain Tom Blake attempted to make a heroic return from a nagging hamstring injury that has sidelined him for much of the year, but the fairy-tale did not play itself out. Blake teamed with freshman Scott Clarke, and the duo struggled en route to an 8-6 loss to Hisham Hemeda and Sherif Zaher.

The doubles point came down to the third match, where the Bulldogs were too strong for the Crimson. The team of co-captain Philip Tseng and junior Mike Passarella dropped a hard-fought contest, 8-6, and Georgia took an early 1-0 lead. Then disaster struck for Harvard.

The elder Blake was forced to retire from his match against Hemeda at 1-4 in the first set due to an aggravation of his hamstring injury, but the Crimson's worst luck came in the No. 3 match.

Sophomore John Doran led Baldas late in the first set when he felt a pull in his quadriceps muscle. Doran played through the pain to take the first set 6-4 but barely able to move, he dropped the next two sets, 6-1 and 6-0, to put Harvard in a 3-0 hole from which it would not escape. Georgia sealed the win with Toledo Corrales's 6-2, 7-5 victory over Majmudar at No. 4, but Harvard's three ongoing matches at the time were decidedly in favor of the Crimson.

When play ended, No. 1 James Blake was serving for the match at 5-3 of the third set versus Roddick, No. 5 Tseng was deadlocked in a one-set-apiece match against an opponent who had been rushed to the hospital due to heat exhaustion and No. 6 Clarke was serving for a straight-sets victory at 5-4 in the second. The match could have easily ended with a 4-3 Georgia victory, and it is obvious that Harvard's less-than-ideal physical condition was its undoing.

Not only did injuries hurt the Crimson during the match, but they adversely affected Harvard even before NCAAs were underway. At a meeting to determine the seeds for the 16-team draw, Fish admitted his squad was not at full strength due to Tom Blake's hamstring problem. That fact cost Harvard the No. 12 seed and a date with Illinois, a far weaker team than eventual national runner-up Georgia.

"If Thomas had not gotten hurt, we would have been the 12th seed, and it would have been a whole different story," Fish said.

Despite Harvard's team season ending prematurely, the Blake brothers represented the Crimson at the NCAA Single and Doubles Championships this weekend. In his first-round match, the younger Blake came from behind after dropping the first set and claimed a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Alex Witt of Northwestern.

UCLA's Matt Breen, Blake's second-round opponent, was not as easy an obstacle to overcome. Breen made quick work of the Harvard rookie, ending Blake's singles season with a 6-1, 6-1 win.

But James Blake had one more chance to achieve national glory as he paired with Tom Blake in the doubles competition. The Blake brothers, Harvard's usual No. 1 doubles team, had not played together in over six weeks.

Blake and Blake defeated Baylor's team of Joost and Hodge in the first round, but the second round appears to have been an unlucky one for men named Blake in this year's NCAA Championships. Kansas's Luis Uribe and Enrique Aberoa earned a straight set, 6-4, 6-4 win to bring Harvard's season to a close and end the short-lived Blake-Blake era for the Crimson.

Despite his earlier-than-expected exit from NCAAs, James Blake earned All-American honors as a result of being seeded higher than 16th in the singles draw.