Junior MARK RIDDELL and classmate Chris Chiou won 9-7 at No. 2 doubles to clinch the doubles point for Harvard Saturday against VCU.

A single point magnificently captured the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat on Saturday.

In the deciding point of the NCAA men’s tennis opener between No. 40 Harvard and heavily favored No. 17 Virginia Commonwealth, Crimson junior Cliff Nguyen hit a cross-court winner to clinch an improbable 4-3 victory. As Nguyen’s teammates stormed their half of the court to carry him on their shoulders, medical staff stormed the opposite end where Nguyen’s opponent Florian Marquardt was rolling on the ground in tremendous pain. Marquardt had called an injury timeout two points before to prevent cramping.

Nguyen’s match capped a wild team victory for the Crimson (18-8, 7-0 Ivy) over Virginia Commonwealth (24-4), the highest-ranked opponent Harvard had beaten this season. The victory allowed the Crimson to advance to the NCAA second round where it fell 4-0 to No. 16 Alabama yesterday.

Marquardt’s timeout made for a climactic finish. The delay gave the sellout crowd of 400-plus time to gather at court No. 3 to cheer him on. Nguyen was not flustered by the momentary distraction and continued to use the energy of the crowd to pressure his opponent.

“I was singing a song in my head so I wouldn’t get nervous or anything,” Nguyen said.

Harvard coach David Fish ’72 praised Nguyen for his aggressive play in the final two points in the 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 clinching victory. The moment reminded him of advice James Blake ’02 received before beating Andre Agassi last summer.

“If you have a chance to beat Agassi, don’t treat it lightly,” Fish said. “I told this team, if you’re in a position to win, go for it then. Don’t sit around thinking you have room to play with. Then you don’t get it, and the match turns around.”

Harvard took the doubles point by a razor-thin margin and was then victorious at No. 2, No. 3 and No. 6 singles. The Crimson had lost four of six first sets but stormed to win the second set in three of those matches and never trailed on the team scoreboard. Harvard junior co-captain David Lingman almost pulled out a come-from-behind victory at No. 1 but fell despite having a triple match point.

By keeping each match close, VCU was never able to gain momentum.

“You never know, either they come in and they dust us or you get your fingernails down a little bit before they knock you off the cliff, and then you hope they climb up so you can look eye-to-eye,” Fish said.

“Every single match, I tell them it’s like a spider web, if you press one strand, it pulls everybody in that direction,” he added.

With VCU winning easily 8-3 at No. 3 doubles, Harvard needed close 9-7 matches at No. 1 and No. 2 to pull out the doubles point.

At No. 1, Lingman and sophomore Jonathan Chu used terrific volleys and passing shots to earn a 9-7 victory. Lingman closed out the match with a powerful, cross-court volley winner, evening the doubles score at 1-1.

That victory spurred on juniors Mark Riddell and Chris Chiou at No. 2. With an 8-7 lead while trailing 30-0, they scored the last four points to close out their match and win the doubles point for Harvard. The turning point came at 7-7, when their opponents gave up an easy game by double faulting twice.

In the 8-3 defeat at No. 3 doubles, Nguyen and co-captain Oli Choo were not having their usual success off their serves and were flustered by their opponents’ strategy. Nguyen said they had never played a team that had stayed back on their serve.