M. Tennis Takes 10th at ITAs

The No. 31 Harvard men’s tennis team completed its run in the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships Saturday with a loss to No. 30 Oklahoma State.

The Crimson (3-3) garnered a 10th-place finish in the tournament after facing its fiercest competition this season.

Throughout the three-day tournament, Harvard showed tremendous consistency and competitiveness, defeating No. 12 University of Southern California, 4-2, for the first time in its history, before finally running out of gas in its closing match against the Cowboys, losing 4-2.

“We expected to be challenged, and we were challenged,” said co-captain Jonathan Chu, who won all of his doubles and singles matches against both the Trojans and Oklahoma State.

“I knew what to expect, this being my third time,” Chu said. “We hung with the best teams out there, and took one down.”

The Crimson’s win against USC came after a tough loss to No. 5 Florida, in which several suspended matches denied Harvard the satisfaction of putting up points against its toughest opponent to date, en route to a 4-0 loss.

But the Crimson shrugged off its obvious disappointment by defeating the Trojans in an unprecedented victory.

“We continued where we left off [after the Florida match],” Harvard assistant coach Terry London said. “[Harvard coach] Dave [Fish ’72] and myself were very pleased.”

Harvard came out firing against the Trojans, securing the doubles point behind wins from senior Martin Wetzel and co-captain Jason Beren, 8-5, and Chu and freshman Ashwin Kumar, 8-6.

In the singles matches, Chu easily defeated Drew Hoskins, 6-3, 6-2, and Kumar won a close match against Johan Berg 7-5, 6-3.

Wetzel lost his first set against Jamil Al-Agba, but took the final two sets to clinch the last singles point and the match for the Crimson.

While Harvard closed out its upset victory over USC, Oklahoma State knocked off No. 7 Stanford, thus setting the stage for a match between two underdogs on Saturday.

“Finishing ahead of Stanford is something we’re really proud of,” London said.

In its closing match, the Crimson seemed to hit the proverbial wall, as the Cowboys quickly took the doubles point with wins of 8-4 and 8-5.

In singles play, Harvard staged a comeback as Wetzel defeated Mark Van Elden 7-5, 6-3, and Chu scored a victory over Tomas Bohnicky 6-1, 7-5.

But Kumar was edged out in a first set tiebreaker versus the Cowboys’ Boris Kukaric, and he went on to lose the second set, and the match, 6-2. After Artie Burmistrau defeated sophomore Shantanu Dhaka 6-4, 6-3, Daniel Byrnes sealed the victory for Oklahoma State with a 1-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 win over sophomore Scott Denenberg.

After three grueling days of matches, the best consolation for Harvard was perhaps the display of senior leadership and the emergence of Kumar, who for the first time this season showed his full potential on the tennis court.

“We have a pretty young team this season, with the exception of the four seniors,” Chu said. “Ashwin has a great set of hands, and we knew right off that he’s going to be a impact player. His learning curve is very high.”

“I played really well this weekend,” Kumar said. “I worked hard throughout the fall and the offseason. In the last few months, my hard work’s paid off. Competing against the top-ranked players [in this tournament] definitely brought out the best in me.”

Next weekend, the Crimson continues its season at Virginia Commonwealth.