In tennis, as Fred Perry once observed, if you don't have it in those first nine positions, well, maybe you just don't have it. Saturday, Harvard couldn't muster a win in nine Eastern Intercollegiate Tennis League matches as defending champion Princeton shut out the Crimson netmen 9 to 0.

In six additional matches, which counted only toward the Big Three championship, Princeton boosted its winning total to 14 to 1. At fourth doubles Doug Walter and Keith Martin provided Harvard's lone victory. After dropping the first set, Walter and Martin came back strong to defeat Harold German and Skip Hartman, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Though both teams were undefeated in EITL play going into the match, Princeton simply had too much for Harvard. At first and second singles the Tigers sport two of the East's best collegiate players Drayton, Nabers and Herb Fitzgibbon. Although matches further down the ladder wore generally closer, Princeton was too strong to be seriously challenged.

"You wanna know somethin'?" a Harvard tennis fan remarked to a fellow when the last score came in. "Fair Harvard--well, we just didn't have it today. No sir, we sure didn't."