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Depleted M. Tennis Squad Takes Home Doubleheader

After a long, exhausting day at the courts, the No. 19 Harvard men’s tennis team had plenty of reasons to smile. The Crimson dominated both ends of its double-header on Saturday, running its record to 7-3.

In the morning, Harvard picked up a 6-1 win over No. 42 Michigan State, and in the evening, the Crimson capped off a successful day with another 6-1 victory, this time over No. 60 Old Dominion.

Although the Crimson was without two of its regular players, it refused to let this affect its level of play or end its winning streak, which now stands at four games.

No. 30 Martin Wetzel, the team’s top singles player, sat out with a shoulder injury, while sophomore Scott Denenberg, another starter, had the flu.

Their teammates—particularly junior Brandon Chiu and sophomore Gideon Valkin—stepped up their level of play in the absence.

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HARVARD 6, MICHIGAN STATE 1

The Crimson started the day with a bang, sweeping the doubles matches and all but one singles match over the Spartans.

The doubles matches were extremely competitive, as two of them reached tiebreakers. Co-captain Jonathan Chu and freshman Ashwin Kumar, playing the top doubles match, defeated Andrew Formanczyk and Nick Rink, 9-8 (3).

Co-captain Jason Beren and junior Brandon Chiu scored an 8-3 victory in the second match, while senior Jordan Bohnen and Valkin—playing together for the first time—beat Cameron Marshall and Michael Flowers, 9-8 (6), the third contest.

Valkin and Bohnen recognized the difficulty of playing with new partners, but both seemed to enjoy the challenge.

“We enjoy playing with each other,” Bohnen added. “We have good chemistry,”

After the tight doubles matches, the Crimson regained its composure for the singles competition.

No. 28 Chu easily defeated Formancyzk 6-4, 6-1 in the top singles spot, and Chiu followed suit in the fifth slot, beating Joseph McWilliams 6-3, 6-0.

In a tight three-set match, sophomore Shantanu Dhaka outlasted Adam Monich 6-7, 6-2, 1-0 (3).

Freshman Dan Nguyen lost a marathon match to Nick Rinks in the Crimson’s only defeat of the morning. After Rinks grabbed a 6-3 victory in the first set, Nguyen struck back with a 6-3 second-set win. Both players refused to blink in the seemingly endless third set, but eventually Rinks persevered, winning 14-12.

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