Harvard Men's Tennis Team Completes Grueling Road Trip, Goes 1-3

It may be overshadowed at times, but the sheer stamina that is required from collegiate athletes is rarely matched. In the span of just five days, the Harvard men’s tennis team (1-3) opened up its spring season with a slew of matches against tough competition. Handling significant traveling and hectic scheduling, the Crimson battled its way to a 1-3 finish.

To begin the season, Harvard traveled to Tennessee, where it faced off against the University of Memphis (4-1). The tightly-contested battle saw a back-and-forth performance between both teams, with the final singles match between the two one-spot players proving the decider for which team would win.

Thanks to a 2-0 sweep of the doubles point by Memphis, the Tigers had the momentum going into the singles slate. However, strong straight-set victories by Harvard’s freshman Nathan Blokhin, junior Rohan Murali, and senior Masato Perera saw Harvard jump to a 3-2 point lead heading into the final two singles matches. The Crimson’s late comeback ultimately fell short, with a ranked match on the number one court saw sophomore No. 109 Benjamin Privara narrowly drop a tight three-setter to No. 101 Moritz Kudernatsch, enabling Memphis to clinch the victory 4-3 against the Harvard team.

After falling to the Tigers, the Crimson made the short in-state trip to face off against Middle Tennessee, a battle that saw the team struggle to build momentum from the opening doubles point. With some new faces slotted into the singles lineup, the Crimson saw the Blue Raiders (5-0) play with tenacious energy. Only Blokhin was able to record a victory for the Crimson in a final score of 1-6.

Instead of a little bit of separation in schedule, Harvard was forced to quickly travel to South Carolina as the opening ITA Kickoff was pushed up due to inclement winter weather.

It was there that the Crimson initiated a shocking upset, beating No. 24 Michigan State with a 4-2 score.

Having not won a doubles point yet this season, the Crimson struck the Spartans in dramatic fashion, holding on to beat the No. 76 and No. 14 duos in the nation to take the doubles point.

In the singles lineup, Murali produced a dominating straight-set victory, 6-2, 6-2, against the No. 14 Ozan Baris in the two spot, a victory that ultimately sparked Harvard’s upset. Perera then defeated No. 103 David Saye, and Blokhin continued his hot rookie start by battling to a three-set win to seal the Crimson’s victory.

With a spot at the ITA National Indoor Championships on the line, Harvard eventually fell short against the unranked Clemson Tigers 1-4 the very next day.

Despite Murali besting No. 21 Romain Gales 6-2, 6-1, the Crimson lost its remaining matches, leading to an early finish in South Carolina.

The Crimson’s doubles play has remained optimistic but stagnant at times. So far this season, the doubles point has proven to be a benchmark in whether the team can roll through its singles matches. Besides a Michigan State upset, the Crimson’s three losses have all been following a lack of success in the doubles portion of play.

Finally ending its hectic road-stretch, Harvard returns home for a fresh slate of opponents, hosting Purdue next Friday at 5:00 p.m., and a doubleheader with the University of Michigan and the University at Buffalo from 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., respectively. It will be interesting to see how the Crimson do following a week’s rest, preparation, and recovery after its flurrying start to the season.

—Staff writer Alex Kim can be reached at [email protected].