Men’s Tennis Back in Action at Harvard Winter Challenge

If you watched the men’s tennis team play this weekend, you would never have guessed that it hasn’t competed a match in over two months. Despite the lack of match play, the Crimson showed signs of the damage it is capable of doing this season.

The No. 64 Harvard men’s tennis team hosted George Washington and Marist this weekend at the Murr Tennis Center for the Harvard Winter Classic. The Crimson dominated the first event of the year, giving the squad confidence going into its dual season starting next week. In the round-robin tournament, Harvard took both first and second place in singles and doubles.

Junior Jonathan Pearlman proved to be the standout individual player of the event. He cruised through two of his matches but had to grind out a tough three-setter to go 3-0 for the event.

In the first match of the weekend, Pearlman used his huge serve to gain the advantage in rallies and came to the net to finish off points in a 6-4, 6-2 victory. Pearlman slipped up in the first set of his second match, losing it 6-2, but came back to win the next two sets, 6-2, 6-3. He finished up the weekend with a 7-6, 6-3 win over senior Christopher Kushma from George Washington.

Pearlman’s classmate Alistair Felton finished runner-up in the singles, going 3-0 as well. Throughout the weekend, his deep returns put his opponents on the defensive from the beginning of points.

He started out with a tough 7-6, 7-6 match, but his aggressive play saw him pull out the win. He had to fight even harder in his second match that went three sets, but Felton remained resilient to win 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. His final match was a much more comfortable 7-5, 6-2 victory over freshman Lorenzo Rossi from Marist.

“I think it went well for me because I won all of my matches,” Felton said. “I improved and got a lot better [as the tournament progressed], so it’s a good confidence booster.”

But the second-place finish wasn’t enough for the Felton. He teamed up with sophomore Andy Nguyen to win the doubles title. The No. 46 pair has been relentless this season, winning the ITA Northeast Regionals and reaching the semifinals of the USTA College Invitational. This weekend, the duo comfortably won its two matches, 8-2 and 8-4.

“I think we’re going to do well this season,” Felton said when asked about his and Nguyen’s chances in the dual season. “We play and train together well so I think we can win a lot of matches.”

Captain Aba Omodele-Lucien and sophomore Josh Tchan took second in the doubles for the weekend. The duo won all three of its matches, the closest being a 9-7 nail-biter that came against Rossi and junior Matt Himmelbach from Marist. The pair won its other two matches much more comfortably, 8-3 and 8-4.

The Crimson’s dominance at the event may not have been that surprising, but its lineup surely was. Playing in his first match since he announced his decision to leave the team in September, senior Alexei Chijoff-Evans tried to reproduce the play that earned him the No. 1 position on the team. Unfortunately, his lack of match play showed, with Chijoff-Evans going 0-3 in the singles, but he still managed to produce a solid game, coming into the net to finish off points when he had the opportunities.

“It’s great to have him back after a long layoff, and it’s good to see him back competing,” Omodele-Lucien said. “We hope he has a good recovery from his break, and we still expect great things from our teammate.”

In his first two matches, Chijoff-Evans lost in straight sets to both Rossi of Marist and Kushma of George Washington. He managed to take it to three sets yesterday in his final match of the weekend, falling 3-6, 7-6, 7-5.

“Playing tennis has been difficult because I didn’t play, essentially, for nine months,” Chijoff-Evans said. “The tennis is there. I can hit the right shots and know the right patterns, but it’s difficult to execute because I’ve been out of match play for a while. The biggest thing right now is not technical. It’s mainly getting my fitness level and confidence up.”

The singles may not have provided Chijoff-Evans with the dream return for which he had been hoping, but he proved to be more dominant in the doubles, partnering with junior Davis Mangham. The duo dominated its first two matches, 8-2 and 8-1, but lost a tight battle, 9-8, to Kushma and sophomore Alexander van Gils, 9-8.

It may not have been a perfect weekend for the Crimson, but the Harvard squad displayed the kind of tennis it will need to produce moving into the dual season. If its players can maintain this level of play, Harvard will be up to face any challenge.

—Staff writer Steven T. A. Roach can be reached at sroach@fas.harvard.edu.