CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard men's tennis (5-3) cruised past Louisville (5-5), 6-1, this afternoon to return to the win column.

"Today's match was the culmination of a very strong and focused week of practice," Andrew Rueb '95, the Scott Mead '77 Head Coach for Harvard Men's Tennis, said following the match.  "I'm proud of the team for their attention to detail and putting in the hard work to get better."

The Crimson got out to a hot start beginning with Melchior Delloye and Valemar Pape blanking their opponents at the No. 3 doubles spot.  Daniel Milavsky and David Lins then went on to clinch the Harvard advantage with their own 6-2 victory. 

Harvard showed no signs of slowing down as it opened singles by winning five of the six first sets.  Milavsky continued his strong senior campaign giving the Crimson another point with a 6-3, 6-1 win at the top court.  Masato Perera and Rohan Murali followed closely behind, each adding identical 6-1, 6-1 wins to clinch Harvard's win with three matches outstanding. 

Delloye added one final straight set victory to contribute to the Crimson win total, dropping Will Mayew at the No. 3 spot with a pair of 6-3 results. 

The final two matches went to a third set tiebreaker that the Crimson and the Cardinals would go on to split.  Marc Ktiri ultimately gathered the last point of the day, battling through tiebreakers to a 11-9 final decision. 

"It was a solid singles performance up and down the lineup," continued Rueb.  "It was especially nice to see Marc Ktiri getting the win at the No. 6 position.  The team is certainly improving each week and we are excited for the ECACs next weekend at Penn."

Results

Doubles

1. No. 21 Benjamin Privara/Masato Perera (Harvard) vs. Natan Rodriguez/Kosuke Nakanishi (Louisville), 4-2 DNF
2. Daniel Milavsky/David Lins (Harvard) def. Will Mayew/Hamza El Amine (Louisville), 6-2
3. Melchior Delloye/Valdemar Pape (Harvard) def. Peña/Andre Steinback (Louisville), 6-0

Order of finish: 3, 2

Singles

1. No. 28 Daniel Milavsky (Harvard) def. Natan Rodrigues (Louisville), 6-3, 6-1
2. Andre Steinbach (Louisville) def. Valdemar Pape (Harvard), 6-2, 4-6, 11-9
3. Melchior Delloye (Harvard) def. Will Mayew (Louisville), 6-3, 6-3
4. Rohan Murali (Harvard) def. Kosuke Nakanishi (Louisville), 6-1, 6-1
5. Masato Perera (Harvard) def. Hamza El Amine (Louisville), 6-1, 6-1
6. Marc Ktiri (Harvard) def. Piet Steveker (Louisville), 7-5, 5-7, 11-9

Order of finish 1, 5, 4, 3, 2, 6

Next Up

The Crimson will begin action at the ECAC Championships next weekend starting Friday, February 14 in Philadelphia, Pa.