HANOVER, NH – No. 14 Harvard men's tennis (14-4, 1-0 Ivy) outlasted Dartmouth (11-6, 0-1 Ivy) in its first conference match of the 2024-25 season.

"What an incredible college tennis match," said Andrew Rueb '95, The Scott Mead '77 Head Coach for Harvard Men's Tennis.  "Dartmouth had tremendous energy and fight and pushed us to the brink.  The match was over four hours long.  With everything tied at 3-3, Rohan pulled a Houdini in the third set with the odds stacked against him."  

The battle was tightly contested from the start, as Dartmouth narrowly claimed the doubles point. Daniel Milavsky and David Lins secured Harvard's lone doubles victory of the day, defeating Carlos Guerrero and Waleed Qadir (Dartmouth) 7-5 on the top court.

Harvard rebounded in singles play, ultimately winning the match with strong performances at the top four courts. Milavsky continued his hot streak, earning his 13th victory of the season with a straight-set win over Guerrero to put the Crimson on the board.

Dartmouth edged closer to victory with consecutive wins at courts five and six. However, those would be the Big Green's final wins of the day, as Harvard swept the remaining three matches. First-year Mitchell Lee kickstarted the Crimson comeback, claiming the third set 6-2 after splitting the first two with Miles Groom at the No. 4 spot.

Valdemar Pape followed with a gritty performance, rallying from a set down and battling through tiebreakers to defeat Henry Ren at court two. The decisive victory came from Rohan Murali, who engaged in a hard-fought battle against Hikaru Takeda at No. 3. After each player won a set in tiebreak fashion, Murali powered to a 6-4 victory in the third set, clinching the win for Harvard.

"We started flat in doubles but managed to wake up for the singles just in time," Rueb continued.  "We will take a lot of lessons from today's match and put them to good use the rest of the way."

Results

Doubles

1. No. 89 Daniel Milavsky/David Lins (Harvard) def. Carlos Guerrero/Waleed Qadir (Dartmouth), 7-5

2. Henry Ren/Miles Groom (Dartmouth) def. Benjamin Privara/Rohan Murali (Harvard), 7-6 (2)

3. Alex Knox-Jones/Denny Bao (Dartmouth) def. Masato Perera/Valdemar Pape (Harvard), 6-3
   
   Order of finish: 1, 3, 2

Singles

1. No. 27 Daniel Milavsky (Harvard) def. Carlos Guerrero (Dartmouth), 6-3, 6-4

2. Valdemar Pape (Harvard) def. Henry Ren (Dartmouth), 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3

3. Rohan Murali (Harvard) def. Hikaru Takeda (Dartmouth), 7-6 (3), 6-7 (2), 6-4

4. Mitchell Lee (Harvard) def. Miles Groom (Dartmouth), 6-3, 3-6, 6-2

5. Alex Knox-Jones (Dartmouth) def. Masato Perera (Harvard), 6-2, 6-4

6. Waleed Qadir (Dartmouth) def. David Lins (Harvard), 6-4, 2-6, 6-4
   
   Order of finish: 1, 5, 6, 4, 2, 3

Next Up

Harvard will hit the road for its first back-to-back Ivy League weekend, facing Princeton (April 5) and Penn (April 6).