Majmudar Shines At Harvard Invite

The opposition saw only a sea of Crimson at the 12-team Harvard Invitational this weekend.

The Harvard men's tennis team sent players to the finals of both men's singles draws and the consolation singles, and in doubles, two Harvard teams slugged it out for the title.

Fourth-seed freshman Kunj Majmudar was unstoppable in his singles draw, yielding no sets to his opponents on his way to the title. Only Virginia Tech's Andrew Krafft provided much of a challenge for Majmudar. In the semi-finals, Majmudar edged Krafft 7-5, 7-6 (7-4).

Majmudar was truly on his game in the finals, dismantling Boston College's Steve Murray 6-2, 6-2. The key to Majmudar's success over Murray was his solid net game.

"I attacked a lot, ran around my backhand and came to net as much as possible," Majmudar said.

In the other draw, first-seed Temple's Fazel Syed was too much for second-seed Harvard senior Danny Chung, winning 6-3, 6-0 in the finals.

"I think he got into a zone where he felt really comfortable, and I wasn't doing anything to take him out of it," Chung said. "He had the momentum at the end, and it was hard for me to get back at that point. I found out a lot of things I need to work on."

Chung's road to the finals was much bumpier than Majmudar's. In his semi-final match against Princeton's Pat Sweeney, Chung outlasted Sweeney in the marathon 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

Paired with junior Josh Hausman, Majmudar took home his second title of the day, defeating teammates Chang and freshman Mike Passarella, 6-3, 6-3.

"We just kept on forcing them to make errors by constantly attacking the net," Majmudar said.

After losing the first set of their first-round match 6-3, Hausman and Majmudar, the number one seed, breezed through the rest of the tournament.

Except for the finals, third-seed Chung and Passarella went through the tournament pretty much unchallenged, with straight-set victories over everyone they faced.

In the consolation singles final, sophomore Jose Manuel Hernandez Ore advanced to the final before losing to Dartmouth's Gabe Sauerhoff, 6-0, 7-5 (7-5).

In Saturday's quarterfinal singles match, Passarella battled hard but came up a few points shy of the victory against Virginia Tech's Marek Pfeil, losing 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.

The tournament was designed for players in the middle of the lineup to showcase their talents against other players in the Eastern region.

"The quality of the tennis was excellent this weekend," said Harvard coach David Fish. "I thought our guys did great."

The Invitational served its intended purpose and gave Harvard the experience it will need for the National Indoor Team Championships.