Quick Start in League Play

The Harvard men’s tennis team opened its Ivy League campaign in fine form this weekend, notching two road wins that were identical in score but opposite in feel.

The No. 43 Crimson (10-6, 2-0 Ivy) made easier work of Cornell (5-10. 0-2) on Friday than the 4-3 outcome indicates, thanks to a dominant doubles lineup and strong play at the top of the singles lineup. Saturday’s match against reigning league champion Columbia (7-5, 2-1), by contrast, was about as close as a match can be. Harvard beat the Lions on the strength of the bottom of its lineup, sealing its 4-3 victory with a clutch three-set win by freshman Alexei Chijoff-Evans.

In Saturday’s win, Harvard reaped the fruit of a grueling early-season schedule: the freshmen showed enough maturity to carry Harvard to the finish line on a day when the more experienced players at the top of the lineup came up short.

HARVARD 4, COLUMBIA 3

Even though the Crimson handily defeated the eventual league champion Lions last year at the Murr Center, the team knew it wouldn’t be easy.

“Going down to their facility was going to be a bear of a challenge,” said Harvard coach Dave Fish ’72.

That challenge grew harder when the decisive action moved away from court one and into the courts of No. 6 Chijoff-Evans and fellow freshman No. 5 Aba Omodele-Lucien.

With Harvard up 3-2, Evans and No. 3 junior Sasha Ermakov were both locked in thrillers.

As Chijoff-Evans described it, Ermakov broke his opponent’s serve and took the attention of the large and rowdy crowd off him just long enough for the freshman to break in his game, pulling the third set score to 2-1. Chijoff-Evans didn’t look back after that, controlling the remainder of the match with heavy groundstrokes that drove his opponent into the corners.

“I took advantage, played my game, and it worked,” Chijoff-Evans said of his 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 victory. “I didn’t worry about whether I’d miss my returns by a few inches, and just went for them. He backed off a little bit.”

Ermakov eventually lost his match in a tiebreaker, 6-3, 7-6 but Harvard’s victory had already been clinched.

Harvard’s other wins came from Omodele-Lucien at No. 5, co-captain Dan Nguyen at No. 4, and No. 2 senior Ashwin Kumar.

Omodele-Lucien fought through a rocky patch early in his match that featured six breaks of serve to win the first set 7-6 in a tiebreaker and then cruised to the finish line, taking the second set 6-2.

Kumar controlled his match throughout, winning 6-3, 6-3, while Nguyen had an easier time of his opponent, winning 6-3, 6-1.

At No. 1, junior co-captian Clayton lost 7-6, 6-3.

Harvard lost the doubles point, but the No. 1 pair of Ermakov and Kumar continued to shine, winning 8-3, in their seventh consecutive victory as a pair.

“It was our goal to peak during Ivies and to lead the doubles lineup at one, and it looks like we might be able to do that,” Kumar said. “Our game grows with confidence.”

HARVARD 4, CORNELL 3

In the Crimson’s Ivy League opener, its freshmen learned the hard way how much more pressure they face in league play. Though both Chijoff-Evans and Omodele-Lucien fell in straight sets, Harvard’s victory was assured early by the strong play of the doubles lineups, and by sure-handed victories from Clayton, Kumar, and Nguyen.

“I was really nervous,” Chijoff-Evans said. “This is really where it counts. These are the matches we’ve been training for all year. It got the best of me.”

The doubles victory proved pivotal, and was lead, as always, by Kumar and Ermakov at No. 1.

“Ashwin and Sasha played lights-out doubles,” Fish said.

The All-American duo won 8-4. The No. 2 duo of sophomore Michael Hayes and Chijoff-Evans won 8-2, and Omodele-Lucien and Nguyen completed the sweep with an 8-4 victory at No. 3.

In singles, No. 1 Kumar and No. 2 Clayton each won 6-4, 6-3, while No. 4 Nguyen won 6-4, 6-1.

At No. 3 Ermakov lost a tight match in a super-tiebreaker after splitting the first two sets.

Though Chijoff-Evans and Omodele-Lucien lost their Ivy League debuts, their teammates rallied around them.

“I remember when we played our first Ivy League matches,” Kumar said. “We were so nervous that we could hardly hold our rackets.”

—Staff writer Jonathan B. Steinman can be reached at steinman@fas.harvard.edu.