Blake, Majmudar Get Bids

After leading the Harvard men's tennis team to a stellar season, two players now seek to win themselves national acclaim.

This weekend, Crimson co-captain Kunj Majmudar and sophomore James Blake both received bids to compete in the NCAA Individual singles and Doubles Championships, which will occur from May 26-30 in Athens, Ga.

"We're very excited about it," Majmudar said. "We're definitely working and practicing hard everyday now to prepare for [the NCAA tournament]."

The two will attempt to continue the success that they have enjoyed this year, both as a duo and as individual players.

Currently ranked No. 48 by the Inter-collegiate Tennis Association, Majmudar will be a new face to the singles field this year after playing for Harvard at the NCAA team tournament for the past three years. Recently, Majmudar jumped up in the ITA rankings from No. 53.

This year, in his final season with Harvard, Majmudar co-captained a talented Crimson team, ranked No. 19 in the nation, to the Ivy League championship and a 7-0 Ivy League season.

Blake, who became Harvard's first freshman to be named an all-American last year, will be making his second appearance in both the singles and the doubles events at the NCAA tournament this year.

At the end of the season last week, Blake retained his No. 1 ITA ranking by a wide margin over Florida's Jeff Morrison. Blake has enjoyed life at the top of the national rankings since December 8, 1998.

With an intimidating 33-3 regular season record and an ability to turn his opponents' weaknesses against them, Blake has been marked as the pre-tournament favorite.

"I think that James will probably be the top seed in the singles [bracket] in the tournament," Majmudar said.

Together the Harvard duo has combined its talents this season to produce explosive results for the Crimson. They compiled a 22-7 doubles record by the end of the regular season. The two won the ITA All-American Championships and reached the semifinals of the ITA Rolex Championships.

Majmudar and Blake will enter the NCAA field as the No. 3 ranked doubles team in the nation.