Youth Will Be Served At Harvard Invitational

While former Harvard tennis star James Blake is putting the Harvard name on the map with success on the pro tour, the current squad is quietly getting ready to show that its surprising run to the NCAA tournament last season was no fluke.

A team that looked as if it may have been too young to recapture the Ivy title in the spring of 2001 now returns nine well-seasoned players. Head Coach David Fish ’72 also recruited eight freshmen, some of whom might crack the starting lineup.

They will get their first chance today as the team hosts the Harvard Invitational at the Beren Tennis Center. Matches will be played throughout the weekend, with the finals on Sunday.

Over 50 players from Harvard, BC, Brown, Dartmouth, Nebraska, Iowa and Rutgers will compete in singles and doubles play.

The key to the team’s success is in its depth, which it showed off repeatedly on its way to a No. 45 national ranking.

Three players—sophomore Cliff Nguyen, junior Oli Choo and co-captain William Lee—all starred at the No. 1 singles position last year, though Lee ultimately had a lock on the top spot. Other returning starters include sophomores Chris Chiou, Mark Riddell and George Turner, along with senior co-captain Dalibor Snyder.

“Will and Dali are in the mold of great captains,” Fish said. “They work, they don’t make excuses and they’re great sportsmen.”

The team’s first test as a unit, however, will come the weekend of Oct. 5-8, when it hosts the ECAC fall team championships at the Beren Tennis Center. Last fall Harvard managed to get to the finals, but eventually fell to Princeton.

Most of the top Northeast teams, including all eight Ivy League squads, will contend at the ECACs, but with home-field advantage, Harvard should not have much trouble picking up the title. But it will have to watch out for much-improved opponents, like Ivy co-champs Columbia and Yale.

“All the other Ivies have their bulls-eye on our back,” Fish said. “This Ivy League has the most depth of any Ivy season I’ve ever seen.”

Some of the best competition the Crimson players will face include some of their own new freshmen. Newcomer Brian Wan was ranked No. 19 in the USTA junior rankings, and two others—Jonathan Chu and Dan Haimovic—were also in the top 50.

Unlike last season, Harvard won’t have the luxury of over-achieving or sneaking up and surprising an opponent on its way to the NCAA tournament. Fish, in fact, has already articulated new goals to his team.

“We have shifted our goals beyond the NCAA championships. Last year we took the goals too seriously,” Fish said. “This time, we have to look at improving every day.”

While the team’s goals may be vague, the path is not. In the spring dual-match season, Harvard is scheduled to play several nationally-ranked teams, including Tulsa and Southern Methodist.