Crimson Bests Big Green

The Harvard men’s tennis team had opponents seeing crimson at last weekend’s Dartmouth Big Green Invitational.

In an all-Crimson final, sophomore Brandon Chiu topped freshman teammate Gideon Valkin, 6-5, 7-5, to take the A-flight singles championship yesterday. Harvard also captured the B-flight singles crown last Sunday, when sophomore Caleb Gardner beat Middlebury’s Nate Edmunds, 6-3, 7-5.

A Chiu-Valkin doubles team managed to advance to yesterday’s finals, but ran out of steam and lost to Rich Moss and Phil Charm of Brown, 8-3.

In a testament to the Crimson’s depth, the trio of Chiu, Valkin and Gardner are usually not among the top six players.

“This was a chance for the guys who haven’t gotten much of a chance to compete in the last event of the fall season,” said Harvard assistant coach Peter Mandeau.

The Crimson domination in A-flight singles culminated in a tightly contested Chiu-Valkin final. Each player traded service breaks in the first set until Chiu took control to win, 6-4.

“My serve was working very well,” said Chiu, “and once my serve is working well, everything falls into place.”

Up a break, Chiu was able to control the pace of play and forced Valkin out of the groove he had established with baseline play.

“I struggled to hit as many passing shots as I would have liked,” Valkin said.

But Valkin was by no means out of the match.

After an early service break in the second set gave Chiu a 4-3 lead, Valkin broke back to tie the set at 4. Both players held their serve to knot the score at 5, but Chiu was able to break Valkin’s serve for a 6-5 advantage.

When Chiu held his final serve, he captured the title.

Coming off a shoulder injury, this was Chiu’s first tournament of the fall.

“This gave us a chance to look at how they had improved,” Mandeau said. “We really weren’t sure how much [Chiu] had improved.”

Earlier that same day, Chiu and Valkin teamed up to compete for the doubles championship. Going into the match, the pair said they were very confident about their prospect of winning.

“We very much expected to win, and it was very disappointing to lose,” Valkin said.

After a semifinal win against Dartmouth’s Jesse Paer and Borko Kereshi, which was easier than the 9-7 score indicated, Chiu and Valkin faced the Moss-Charm duo.

The Crimson duo fizzled in the finals, and the pair fell 8-3.

“We could have had a little more spark and energy,” Valkin said.

Unusually, the doubles championship is held before the singles championship, which Valkin admitted may have caused the two to overlook the doubles final.

In B-flight singles, Gardner’s victory was momentous for the sophomore. His win came on the same day as his 6-1, 6-4 semifinal win over Raj Shrestha of Dartmouth.

“Caleb had a breakthrough tournament,” Mandeau said.

Freshman Max Tedali was also able to reach the B-flight semifinals. Tedali defeated Dartmouth’s Eli Samaha, 6-3, 6-3, in the first round before defeating Samaha’s teammate Priya Sahu, 6-4, 6-2, in the second.

The Big Green Invite allowed most of the Crimson to finish the fall season on a high note. With the success of players usually left off the roster, Harvard has the luxury of juggling its ladder in the Spring.

“We probably have 12 players that could fit into six spots,” Mandeau said. “We’ll see over the winter how everyone works out.”

Senior co-captain Cliff Nguyen is the only player with an event left this fall. He will travel to the ITA National Indoor Singles Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich., in November.