Harvard Men's Tennis: News and Views
Photos: top to bottom:
Napa Event, Yeung in Seoul, team with Jez...
Inside this Issue:
"Chowdah" Fest
Porsche Napa Valley
Princeton Ivy Plus
Brian Yeung at Asian Games
Jez Green
Denis at All-Americans
It has been a whirlwind of a start to the fall season and we are finally catching our collective breaths. On August 25th, the four new freshmen arrived in Harvard Yard with their luggage and families in tow for "move-in" day and were greeted by the coaches, co-captain Alex Steinroeder and junior Conor Haughey. (See photo below). This is our favorite day of the year as the energy in the Yard pulses with excitement, anticipation and anxiety! We welcomed Kenny Tao (San Fran), Jean Thirouin (Houston/France), Grant Solomon (Dallas) and Xavier Gonzalez (Houston) into the Harvard Tennis family.
"Chowdah" Fest
The team held captains practices through the first week of school before the official beginning of the season on September 9th. The very first weekend we hosted #23 University of South Florida, #31 University of San Diego and #35, the 'Bama Crimson Tide in the annual "Chowdah" Fest. It is a fun flighted tournament that gives us a chance to be tested right from the opening bell. We passed with flying colors, winning 7 of 8 matches from the other "Crimson" and taking 3 of 4 against USF in their respective flights. Denis Nguyen was the tournament runner-up and Brian Yeung won the second flight at the event, going 3-0 on the weekend. See more results here…
The following weekend HMT scattered across the globe. Four players and Coach Fish headed off to the Porsche Napa Valley event and Andrew took another eight players to Princeton for the Ivy Plus event that featured all the Ivies plus Michigan, Tulane, Virginia Tech, and Pepperdine. Brian Yeung, our sophomore sensation, went to South Korea for the Asian Games, representing Hong Kong.
Porsche Napa Valley:
Living the la dolce vita turned out to be the winning formula in Napa. The boys went 10-2 in singles on the weekend against #5 UNC, Texas, Stanford, Cal and Tulsa along with a National Team of USTA juniors. Both sophomore Sebastian Beltrame and freshmen Nicky Hu won their respective flights and qualified for the Solinco Shoot-out, in which the 8 flight winners competed in a 10 point match tie-breaker for the title and an ATP Challenger Wildcard. Sebastian blasted through his opponents from Cal and Texas respectively to make it the final while Nicky Hu used a chainsaw to massacre his opponents from UNC and Tulsa 10-1 and 10-2 to face Sebastian in the finals! Sebastian edged Nicky for the title and the wildcard. Denis Nguyen went 2-1 on the weekend and freshmen standout Kenny Tao went 2-1 as well. Check out the wrap up here.
Princeton Ivy Plus:
It was a lot of tennis in Tigerland and some strong showings for the boys from Cambridge. Freshmen Jean Thirouin lost in the finals of his flight to a strong player from Michigan and sophomore Andrew Ball also pushed hard before falling in the finals to his opponent from Buffalo. Shaun Chaudhuri and Kelvin Lam won the doubles in the B-flight to give the Crimson another title on the weekend.
Asian Games:
Congrats to Brian Yeung for his showing in the Asian Games representing Hong Kong. See the photo of him in action below in the team competition. Brian played and helped Hong Kong defeat Kuwait before falling to Kazakhstan and Nedovyesov (a top 120 ATP player). He also competed in the men's and mixed doubles events.
Jez Green:
Once we had finished our first two tournamnents, it was back to training and building the body into a weapon. We are blessed to have Jez Green a part of our program. Eric Butorac had introduced us to Jez and helped bring him on board last year to come a few times and supervise our strength and conditioning program. Jez is probably the most respected fitness coach in the world after having worked with Andy Murray for the past 8 years. Coach Fish and I feel like we are back at school learning what these high-octane athletes do to hone their bodies to withstand the forces of modern tennis. We did on court and off court training over three days and developed a periodization plan for the season. Jez will return towards the end of October for another three-day stint in Cambridge. Below is a photo of our track session with Jez – the bald guy in the middle (taken after the guys ran 200s).
All-Americans:
I'm currently with Denis in Tulsa, Oklahoma for the ITA All-American event. You can follow our results on Twitter #HMTofficial.
--
Scott Mead Family Head Coach of Men's Tennis
Harvard University Dept of Athletics
Murr Center
65 N. Harvard St.
Boston, MA 02163
fish@fas.harvard.edu
GoCrimson Men's Tennis website
Harvard Men's Tennis blog
No comments:
Post a Comment