Magic Mitty Works His Balancing Act on Court

A great tennis player needs balance.

The ability to change direction in an instant is crucial to success. The balance of his game is also important as net play and ground strokes must be combined gracefully. However, Mitty Arnold of the Harvard men's tennis team is in search of a different type of balance.

Arnold--a junior history concentrator from Eliot House--came to Harvard with his tennis game already balanced. Growing up in Providence, Rhode Island, the game came early to him.

"I started playing the game when I was eight," says Arnold. "My older brother started playing, and I was always so competitive with him that I began playing immediately."

Arnold found quick success but was not an overwhelming talent. While he played on the local youth circuit and qualified for the big national tournaments, he never found himself at the top of the national rankings. At this point Arnold had to realize that there would be more to his life than tennis, and so the quest for balance began.

"I went to Milton Academy--a boarding school nearby--for high school and spent most of my time just practicing with the team. Sometimes I would head into Boston to work with a coach. I wasn't only focused on tennis and I tried to find balance with the rest of my life."

Arnold started thinking about his college future during his sophomore and junior years. He knew that the option to play Division I tennis was there for him.

"I looked at all the Ivies and at Notre Dame and Arkansas," Arnold says. "I came to Harvard because there was a good balance between academics and athletics. After I applied and got in, I think the whole Harvard reputation' worked on me and brought me here."

Arnold's search for balance would come to a successful end, but only after some difficult times.

"It took me a while to get everything straight freshman year," Arnold says. "I felt really swamped with the time expected of me to play tennis and it took me a while to organize my time and come to terms with my work."

Arnold found that this organizational improvement was one of the most valuable parts of his experience.

"If I didn't have tennis, I think I would be wasting a lot of time," Arnold says. "I am planning on playing next year which I think is a testament to how much I have enjoyed it."

Arnold didn't come to the tennis team with a lot of personal expectations, but does feel that his game has improved during his stay. This season has been especially positive.

"I've played well, but moved around a lot," Arnold explains. "I played number-two in the fall and four in the winter. The last couple of matches I have been in between. It hasn't effected my play, though. I try to keep level-headed."

One match this season has carried a little bit of sweet revenge for Arnold.

"The Duke match at Indoor [Nationals] was interesting," Arnold says. "I was interested in Duke when I was looking at colleges and the coach was recruiting me. Suddenly he got a couple of really good players and I lost all contact with him. It was really nice to beat up on them."

The victory against Duke and a defeat of highly-ranked Southern Alabama, both at the National Indoor Championships, propelled the Crimson to 13th place in the national rankings.

However, the success did not transfer to the outdoor courts. The team's recent trip to Texas for the Corpus Christi Tournament included defeats to Michigan, UNLV and Tulsa.

"Coming off the Texas trip with three losses to lower-ranked teams we learned some things," Arnold says. "We know that when we play well we can play with anyone at the top. However, when we don't play well, we can lose to anyone. We have a tough schedule ahead of us and I think it was important for us to forget any fantasies about how good we are."

Arnold points to the depth of the Crimson as a major strength. However, surprisingly, he feels that the balance that he as always looked for is the teams weakness.

"We don't spend as much time on the court as a lot of our opponents," Arnold explains. "Our players are not one-dimensional. A lot of those other guys plan on playing tennis for a living, and we are not so tennis oriented."

Balance may not always provide victories, but for Arnold, the quest has been worthwhile.