If you want to catch one of the best free shows in town, gobble down a quick lunch after Ec 10 today and head for the Palmer Dixon courts, where the Harvard men's tennis team will hoist anchor for the '78 season against Navy at 2 p.m.

Harvard (2-3, 0-0 in the league) stands as the favorite to win over the Midshipmen (5-3, 0-2 in the league), who have lost a lot from last year's 15-6 squad, but nonetheless don't plan on being keelhauled.

Four of the Navy's six 1977 starters have graduated (Eastern League matches consist of six singles, three doubles matches) leaving coach Bobby Bayliss with a talented but inexperienced crop that has already dropped a pair of one-sided decisions to Columbia and Penn.

Double Inconsistency

Both squad's doubles teams have performed inconsistently so far this spring, so if the Crimson wants to insure the victory, they must handle Navy decisively in the singles matches, which are played first.

Don Pompan, the freshman whiz from Encino, Calif., and a dead ringer for Starsky the T.V. detective, will not play. A bad ankle has left him indefinitely sidelined, but Harvard has the edge in singles, anyway.

Todd Lundy should handle Middie co-captain Buddy Robinson at number one, but Robinson--a hot-and-cold player who crunches the ball--could take Lundy if he's on.

Scott Walker faces converted football player and phenomenal athlete Gene Miller at number two, and Andy Chaikovsky pairs off with Oregon freshman Craig Morrison at three. Chaikovsky defeated Morrison in the fall, but both these matches are up in the air.

The Crimson squad is strongest lower on the ladder, where Greg Kirsch, Kevin Shaw and frosh sub Bob Horn will play. A Crimson sweep here would pretty much sew up the match, but Midshipmen Brad Baylor, a very steady co-captain, and Jon Wall, a freshman who has won both his league matches, hope to prevent that.

"Navy is one of the more fun matches on the schedule," captain Lundy said Wednesday night, "because they're such good guys--and because we've won the last couple years."

By dinnertime, we'll all know if it's still fun.

TENNIS TIDBITS

NORTHERN SCHEDULE

April 7, vs. Navy, 2 p.m.

April 15 vs. B.C., 2 p.m.