Harvard's Nguyen: A Diamond in the Rough

In true David and Goliath fashion, co-captain Dan Nguyen faced Princeton’s nationally ranked—and internationally experienced—Peter Capkovic in the semifinals of the ITA Northeast Regional tournament.

On paper, the match was clearly a lopsided one. While Capkovic toured Europe playing some of the best juniors in the world, Nguyen spent his years being coached by his tennis- and badminton-enthusiast father.

“Growing up in Phoenix, there was no real competition,” Nguyen says. “Essentially, all I did for training was hit with my brother and the ball machine.”

For those with Nguyen’s background, even standing across the net from someone six inches taller—and, according to College Tennis Online, someone whose career record includes victories over Radek Stepanek and Vladmir Voltchkov—would be a daunting experience to say the least.

But for Nguyen, it was business as usual.

His storm through the tournament saw him take out two seeded players, including No. 2 Capkovic.

“I just played smart, moved the ball around, and waited for my opportunity to be the aggressor,” he says.

Nguyen won the match in convincing fashion, 6-0, 7-5, and progressed to face the No. 1 seed in the final, to whom he lost, 6-1, 6-0.

“[Regionals] was Dan’s coming-out party,” says head coach Dave Fish ’72. “It’s all the best players in the Northeast region, so to get to the finals and to beat some of those players along the way is a wonderful accomplishment for him. He’s never done anything like that before.”

Reaching the finals of the regional tournament automatically qualified Nguyen for the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championship tournament held last weekend in Columbus, Ohio. The 32-player singles field featured some of the best players in the country.

“Both of my matches were against top-10 players in the country,” Nguyen says. “What I learned from the tournament was that they’re really skilled players, but that I could hang with them and play with them.”

But Nguyen hasn’t always been able to compete and win against top players. In fact, this fall is the first in his career that Nguyen has even been fit for play. A strained hip flexor and groin freshman year, tennis elbow sophomore year, and a pulled calf muscle junior year has limited his playing time to just the spring Ivy League season each year.

“Despite difficulties, he would never complain,” junior co-captain Chris Clayton says. “Dan just always kept his nose to the grind. He wasn’t the most emotional of guys, but he was definitely steady in his dedication to the team regardless of whatever was going on [or] off the court.”

Indeed Nguyen’s consistency as a player and hard work on and off the court for the past three years have translated into success. Nguyen was named to the honorable mention All-Ivy team and went 21-15 overall in singles play last year.

“All the pieces have come together in his game,” says assistant coach Andrew Rueb ’95. “It’s great to watch somebody hit their stride and take their game to another level. He’s put a lot of work in his first three years, and it’s starting to come to fruition.”

Nguyen’s high level of play, combined with his dedication to the game despite injuries and difficulties, has provided a needed consistency and stability to the Harvard men’s tennis team.

“He doesn’t put the team through emotional highs and lows, and he comes ready to play each time,” Fish says. “The degree of dependability and constancy in his approach gives me, as a coach, emotional peace of mind. Dan is that quiet soldier who is easily overlooked at your own peril.”