Men's Tennis Finds Mixed Success at ITA Tournament

This past week saw Beren Tennis Centre play host to the Men's ITA New England Regionals, a five-day event running from Thursday through Monday. The main draw featured nine Harvard athletes amongst a field of 150 other competitors, with eight competing in the singles event and five duos representing the Crimson in doubles. The competition would see the finalists of the single event and the doubles champions earn the opportunity to move on to the NCAA Individual Championships later this year, hosted in Waco, Texas.

“The ITA tournament this past week was a great performance for us! Harvard was able to get everyone on the team into the tournament,” junior Masa Perera said.

Day one of the tournament featured the preliminary draw of the competition, with players needing to secure two wins to proceed to the second day of the event and compete in the main draw. Two Harvard athletes set out to defend their home court on this first afternoon.

Both players competed on the outdoor courts of Beren amongst the backdrop of New England fall colors, with junior Kareem Ansari being the first Harvard player to show his skills and fight for a spot in the main event

Ansari was unable to dig out an underdog victory against the highly-ranked fourth seed Caleb Saltz of Boston College. Saltz took the upper hand against Ansari, ending the match in two quick sets, 6-1, and 6-4, which would prevent Ansari from progressing onwards to day two of the singles competition.

Whereas Ansari was unable to find success against his Boston rival, sophomore James Macdonald showcased his might amongst a crowd of Harvard supporters. His first match was against league opponent and 14th seed Noah Eisenberg of Cornell.Eisenberg proved why he was seeded higher in the first set, clinching a close 7-5 win, giving him the edge heading into the second. But, MacDonald wasn’t ready to let Eisenberg bring the hardware back to Ithaca. The sophomore took time between the sets to reframe his mindset heading into the back-half of the match, and broke Eisenberg to win the second in a decisive manner, 6-3. With the match heading into a tiebreaker to decide the third, MacDonald didn’t let up on his momentum, winning in a thrilling fashion, 10-8. Learning his lesson and taking his glory into the next round, MacDonald easily dispatched Lukas Phimvongsa of Brown in straight sets, 6-3, 7-5.

MacDonald’s back-to-back victories in the qualifiers secured him another day of competition, this time in the main draw, which would ultimately see if his grit could send him to NCAAs later in the season.

While the qualifiers was a mixed bag for the home team, the Crimson headed into the main draws of the tournament with a fire to prove why it deserved to host the tournament, dropping just three games throughout the whole day across all of its matches.

Top-notch doubles action was responsible for the Crimson’s first four victories of the day, with a premier performance manifesting in an imposing 8-0 sweep by the two-seed and No. 84 nationally ranked Perera and freshman Benjamin Privara up against Matthew Carlson and Ezequiel de la Plaza from Holy Cross.

MacDonald picked up his momentum from the previous day of competition, and junior Valdemar Pape followed suit. Together, the duo outclassed Finn Burridge and Carlos Braun Simo of Quinnipiac 8-1.

Harvard tennis, however, recovered by securing two more victories in doubles. Seventh seed junior Melchior Delloye and freshman Mitchell Lee defeated Ian Layton and Fateh Singh of Marist 8-3, while sophomore Rohan Murali and senior Elisha Thornton concluded the doubles in a hard-fought 8-6 win over Elias Hoxha and Csanad Nyaradi of Quinnipiac.

While Harvard showcased its might, freshman Brick Johnson and junior Marc Ktiri unfortunately fell short of ensuring a Harvard doubles sweep, losing to Ronin Lotikar and Zubin Omar of Binghamton in an 8-3 game.

Moving into the singles, the Crimson carried the same energy and dominance as Perera, Privara, Pape, and Lee downed their opponents in straight sets. Murali, Ktiri, and Delloye finished the day by adding three more victories to Harvard tennis’ tally, each fighting through three-set dramas.

A commanding day for the Crimson meant that it would head into the Round of 32 in doubles and both the Round of 32 and Round of 16 for singles on the third day of the competition.

Day three of the tournament saw seven Harvard athletes still competing in the main draw. In the doubles competition, two doubles pairing remained standing: Delloye and Lee, and MacDonald and Pape. The Round of 32 saw them both secure wins and advance to the Round of 16 on day four of the tournament.

Delloye and Lee defeated Alexander Koong and Toby Luo of Brown Tennis 8-2, and Macdonald and Pape registered a similar scoreline, 8-3, against the pairing of Josh Israel and Benito Vlassis from Colgate.

In the singles competition, four athletes still donned the Crimson’s jersey with hope to progress onwards to the Quarterfinals on day four of the event. Of the four, the team saw half of its athletes, Privara and Murali, find success in this endeavor.

Privara collected his victory against Alex Finkelstein of Brown, and then went on to defeat Petar Teodorovic in straight sets in a 6-4, 6-1 win that sealed his route onwards in the competition. Murali followed suit with two straight-set wins, handling his Round of 32 opponent Cheng Tang from Buffalo, and Aman Sharma of Cornell, to pave his way to the final eight.

Unfortunately, although both Perera and Pape won their Round of 32 singles match-ups with dominant straight-set performances, they both fell at the hurdle of the Round of 16. Perera faced Raduo Papoe of Cornell, which went in favor 7-5, 7-5 to the athlete from Ithaca. Pape put up a strong fight in the second set against his opposition from Yale, Krish Gupta, but ultimately it was defeat for Pape, who fell 6-3, 7-6 (3).

Moving into Sunday afternoon, the Crimson entered into Quarterfinal play, represented in singles action by Privara and in doubles action by Delloye and Lee.

Delloye and Lee had secured their spot in the quarterfinals earlier that morning. In their doubles Round of 16 match, they defeated Dylan Breen and Oscar Martinez of Siena College 8-4.

Therefore, with a comfortable win under their belt from just hours before, Delloye and Lee entered their doubles Quarterfinal match with confidence. Nevertheless, whether it be overconfidence or exhaustion, this earlier match likely played a role in the fall of Harvard tennis. No. 1 seed Adit Sinha and Nathan Mao of Cornell University defeated the Crimson duo Delloye and Lee 8-2. Despite their fall, Delloye and Lee posted strong numbers this weekend, leaving the duo looking to a promising season with much to look forward to.

This meant that going into singles Quarterfinals, Privara and Murali were the two remaining representatives of the Crimson left standing in the tournament. Unfortunately, Murali fell to third seed Sinha in straight 6-4 sets, marking the end of his ITA tournament run.

Privara, however, was not ready to let Harvard tennis’ presence at its home courts disappear. He defeated Krish Gupta from Yale University 6-2, 6-4, muscling his way into the Semifinals.

Up against the top-seeded player of the tournament, Radu Papoe from Cornell, Privara was up for a challenge. While he gave Papoe a run for his money, pushing him to tiebreakers in the opening set, Privara was unable to bounce back from a tight first set, falling to the Cornell player 7-6 (2).

Having seemingly maxed out his effort to make the first set such a back-and-forth battle, Privara seemed to have little gas left in the tank, which saw him quickly fall behind Papoe and drop the second set 6-1. This marked the end of the Crimson’s presence at the ITA New England Regionals.

Nevertheless, this dominant run by the freshman as well as the strong performances by his other teammates, shows the strong signs of promise for Harvard as it enters its tournament season.

“It was good to see the new members of the team in action. I am very happy with the way they capitalized on this opportunity, and I am very excited for a bright future ahead,” Perera explained.

—Staff writer Lauren Choy can be reached at lauren.choy@thecrimson.com