Harvard Picks Up Second Straight Victory

The doubles players on Harvard men’s tennis team continued to build momentum on the season this Sunday at the Murr Center, winning their third doubles point in the last three outings and helping the Crimson defeat Michigan State, 5-2, in its second win in as many matches this month.

Sophomore Gideon Valkin and junior Scott Denenberg, who teamed up once again after not playing together due to injury, defeated their opponents in decisive fashion in the No. 3 match, 8-3.

Freshmen Sasha Ermakov and Nick Savage also took their match at No. 2 with a score of 8-3 to clinch the doubles point.

The best doubles competition of the day, however, occurred in the top match-up, between the pair of co-captain Brandon Chiu and sophomore Ashwin Kumar and the pair of Spartans’ Adam Monich and Nick Rinks, ranked No. 41 in the nation.

The match went into a tiebreak at eight games apiece. Although down, 4-2, at the side change, Chiu and Kumar rallied back to finish the sweep at the doubles for Harvard.

“The doubles were very good,” Chiu said. “The entire team had good energy. It was the first time Ashwin and I played this year, and we’re both good doubles players.”

“Brandon and I were in a dogfight,” Kumar said. “[We were up] against a nationally-ranked team, so it was nice to come up on top.”

In the singles matches, Nick Rinks of Michigan State defeated Chiu handily at No. 1, 6-1, 7-5, while Adam Monich bested Ermakov at No. 2, 6-4, 6-3.

“I played a pretty tough player,” Chiu said. “He came out firing and it took me off my game a little bit. It took me a set-and-a-half to get really my teeth into the match. I picked it up, but it was too little too late.”

The Crimson took all of the four other matches, as freshman Chris Clayton quickly dispatched Scoot Rasmussen at No. 5, 6-1, 6-0. Junior Shantanu Dhaka earned the second singles point, 6-4, 6-2.

Kumar clinched the match after defeating his opponent, 6-2, 6-3, at No. 4.

“From the personal standpoint, I’ve been battling injuries for this past month,” Kumar said. “But today, the team really took care of business, and we beat the Michigan State guys pretty handily. We all were really intensive, had a good attitude, and executed our game plans. It’s a long season, and we had a rough start, but now we’re healthy, so this is a good start for the rest of the season.”

“This is one step forward towards our ultimate goal,” Kumar said. “That is, to win the Ivy League championship. So this a building block for those matches. It was a good win, but there is a long part of the season still left.”

Next weekend, the Crimson travels to Williamsburg to play Virginia Commonwealth on Saturday and the College of William and Mary on Sunday.

“They’re both tough teams,” Chiu said, “and we’re going to be on the road, so it’ll be a challenge. But our team is starting to play better, so we’re up to the challenge.”

—Staff writer Tony D. Qian can be reached at tonyqian@fas.harvard.edu.