Harvard Men’s Tennis Continues Ivy League Dominance at Brown Invitational

In a display typical of this season’s form, the Harvard men’s tennis team completed yet another weekend of dominant play at the Brown Invitational in Providence, R.I.

The Crimson, represented by junior David Arkow, first-year Marc Ktiri and sophomore Elisha Thornton, made light work of Saturday’s matches with a clean sweep against both Brown and Boston University.

Ktiri, Thornton, and Arkow all only needed two sets to prevail in their singles matches against the Terriers, winning (6-2, 6-2), (6-4, 6-2), and (6-2, 6-4) respectively. In doubles play, Ktiri and Thornton put on a dominant exhibition to win 6-1.

“In college doubles it’s one set and no ad, so it’s super important to come out with a lot of energy and fight really hard from the start.” Thornton explained. “You set the tone with your energy, and I think we did a good job of that vs. BU.”

The results of the Harvard trio’s morning matches against BU proved to be a sign of things to come later that afternoon.

In his singles contest with Brown junior Ross Cornelissen, Arkow recorded a perfect match with consecutive 6-0, 6-0 victories – a rare feat known as a “double bagel.”

“The players were supposed to do well, and we took care of business,” Arkow reflected. “The Brown game was especially good. Getting the 6-0, 6-0 scoreline was nice. A match like that is hard to come by, so those are always fun.”

In one of the closest matches of the weekend, Thornton came up with a clutch 10-8 super tiebreak victory to win his singles match against Brown junior Chun Lam 6-4, 2-6, 10-8.

“Chun is a really good player with a big serve,” Thornton said. “It was just a matter of finding the rhythm on the return games, trying to get into the games and make him play. When it came down to the end it could have gone either way, but I just tried to compete really hard, stay calm, play one point at a time, and just play with a lot of energy even though it was my 4th match of the day.”

Ktiri won his singles match handily, 6-4, 7-5, and paired up with Thornton to wrap-up Harvard’s doubles dominance with a 6-3 victory over Brown.

Sunday’s matches yielded a new opponent, with the Crimson coming up against tough competition from Quinnipiac. The Bobcats came out on the front foot and provided Harvard with stiff competition. In a morning of mixed results, Thornton defeated his singles opponent, junior Ayato Arakaki 6-2, 6-4 before combining with Arkow in a hard-fought 6-3 defeat in doubles.

Arkow emphasized the positives of that loss, the first tournament doubles match the pair had played together.

“Doubles is always tough especially because it’s short, it's only one set, it’s quick and it's hard to get a rhythm sometimes.” Arkow said. “We had good energy, good team camaraderie, but in the future there’s a lot of room for improvement and the more we play together the better we can become.”

The Crimson now shifts its focus to next weekend’s ITA Northeast Super Regionals, which promises to be a grandstand showcase of everything the team has been working towards so far this season.

With 11 of the players in the 32 man draw representing Harvard, Arkow believes the tournament is a great opportunity for the team.

“It’s exciting to host something like this where we’re bringing in the best players in the northeast,” Arkow explained. “They’re all coming to us to play, and we’ve got more than a third of the entire draw, so that just speaks to how far we’ve come as a program.”

The ITA Super Regionals will take place Friday, October 21st through Monday, October 24th at the Crimson’s home courts in Cambridge.

—Contributing writer Alexander Bell can be reached at alexbell@college.harvard.edu.