The Harvard men's and women's tennis teams both open their fall seasons this weekend. The Netmen take their rackets to New Haven for the Yale Invitational, while the Netwomen play host in the Harvard Invitational.

Both events are individual tournaments and team scores will not be kept as schools will have varying numbers of players entered. As the first competition for both Crimson squads this year, however, the results will be the first gauge of their potential for the year.

The men's Yale Invitational will feature four singles flights. While most schools have entered two players in each of the flights, the men's team has placed four players each in flight A and flight B, and two players each in flight C and flight D.

"We are really deep again this year," men's coach Dave Fish said. "I think we have the talent to be competitive in all four flights this weekend."

The flight A line-up has been set to include junior Dan Chung, sophomore Mitty Arnold and freshmen Tom Blake and Philip Tseng.

The rest of the line-up had not been determined at press time.

Missing from the Crimson starting 12 players this weekend are junior Todd Meringoff and captain Andrew Rueb.

Meringoff, the two-time defending Rolex Eastern Men's Division I Champion, is still bothered by a groin injury that ended his spring season prematurely.

Rueb suffered a knee injury last spring and also is not back at full strength.

"I'm still slowed down a bit," Rueb said. "But Todd and I are on the road to recovery."

The Crimson will also be without the services of junior Howie Kim, who injured his hand in a bicycle accident.

The line-up has been shored up, however, by the arrival of a new crop of talented freshmen. Blake and Tseng are joined by Jose Hernandez Ore and Brandon Bethea in the tennis class of '98.

Blake and Tseng, both highly ranked in the junior circuits, figure to make an immediate impact for the Crimson.

"Tom and Philip can really help us out in the top of the line-up this year," Rueb said.

"This really is some of the best talent I've seen in years," Fish said. "If the team is healthy, I would look forward to playing any team in the country."