Tennis? Yup, tennis. Five Harvard racket stars, in good shape after a winter of indoor play, travel to Westport Conn., today to compete in the three-day New England Indoor Championship.

The Crimson's brightest hope in the championships is Frank Ripley, probably the top man on this spring's team. Ripley has been a finalist in the New England College championships two years in a row.

Ripley will be backed up by four experienced, capable players, Clive Kileff, a fine shotmaker from Southern Rhodesia, should press Ripley for the top spot this season. Captain Sandy Walker, in his third year on the team, has been working hard all winter. Walker faces Nick Sharry, New England's third-ranked player, in the first round tonight.

Rounding out the Harvard contingent are juniors Chum Steele and Dean Peckham, steele held down the number four position, last spring and is a standout doubles player. He is nationally ranked in men's doubles and, along with Belmar Gunderson holds the national indoor mixed doubles title.

Up and Down

Peckham fluctuated between the number six and number eight positions on the team last spring, while he and Bob Inman developed into a powerful doubles combination.

In the tournament this week, Ripley and Kileff will team up in the doubles, and Peckham and Steele will form another combination. Walker will play in the doubles; he will be assigned a partner by the tournament committee when it makes up the draw.

The championships boast a strong field, including Tony Vincent, the top ranking National "junior veteran" (a curious euphemism for 35-40 year olds). George Ball nationally ranked senio player, Butch Seewagen, the nation's second-ranked junior, Henri Salaun, New England's best tennis player once he leaves the squash courts, and Bob Barker, number six player in the East last year, are also slated to compete.

The spring tennis season gets under way with a Southern tour over Spring vacation, when two six-man Harvard teams play squads from Duke, Presbyterian, Clemson, and North Carolina.