The varsity tennis team played one of its best games of the season against Yale Saturday, but the Blue played a little better to take a close 8 to 7 victory in a match that began at noon and wasn't over until 10:30 p.m.

The marathon match was necessitated because the number four singles was played three hours ahead of the rest of the match and late afternoon rain forced some of the games into the Brookline Country Club that evening.

But the loss represents the closest Harvard has come to the tennis-talented Elis since the war.

Three of the seven singles matches taken by the Blue were especially close, Charlie Ames, Dick Hatten, and Ted Bullard all falling by narrow margins. However, in the number one competition Yale's distinguished captain Rola Ray had little trouble in whipping Harvard's Bud Ager, 6 to 2, 6 to 0.

Win 4 Out of 5 Doubles

Coach Barnaby's season-long practice of giving his less experienced doubles pairs action whenever possible paid big dividends, for the Crimson was victor in four out of the five doubles matches.

The summaries:

Singles--Ray (Y) defeated Ager (H), 6-2, 6-0; Norris (Y) defeated Bullard (H), 6-4, 7-5; Lynch (Y) defeated Ames (H), 6-2, 3-6, 10-8; Hunt (Y) defeated Frey (H), 6-2, 6-1; Hughes (H) defeated Carr (Y), 6-4, 4-6, 6-2; Hands (Y) defeated Swartzman (H), 6-2, 6-3; Stokes (Y) defeated Robb (H), 6-8, 6-2, 6-2; Hooe (Y) defeated Hatten (H), 8-6, 6-8, 10-8; Tobias (H) defeated Bright (Y), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Gordon defeated Bliss (Y), 6-1, 6-8, 6-4.

Doubles--Ager and Bullard (H) defeated Hands and Ray (Y), 6-4, 7-9, 6-4; Higgins and Key (H) defeated LaRoche and Aymar (Y), 2-6, 8-6, 6-4; Ames and Hughes (H) defeated Carr and Hunt (Y), 4-6, 8-6, 8-6; Bramhall and Reese (H) defeated Russell and Smith (Y), 7-5, 6-3; Slote and Stokes (Y) defeated Combs and Zinsser (H), 4-6, 6-0, 6-2.