AOTW: Hobbled Wetzel Snags Win

Talk about bad timing. Just like that—only a week before the No. 21 Harvard men’s tennis team was to take on top-ranked, top-seeded and undefeated-in-two-years Illinois in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament—junior Martin Wetzel felt the return of the nagging groin injury which had already hobbled him from mid-October to mid-April. But he wasn’t about to let it sideline him twice.

Rather, Wetzel won his singles match against Illinois in runaway fashion, allowing Harvard to stave off elimination and bringing the dual match to a 3-3 tie with just one individual contest remaining.

The lead had flip-flopped all afternoon, and this tie afforded the Crimson a fresh chance—one more point, and the team would advance to the Elite Eight for only the second time in school history.

Moreover, that one point would give Harvard something no other school had managed to earn in 62 tries: a win over Illinois.

Wetzel was aware of the injury—one which the German re-aggravated in the Round of 32 against Tulane—throughout his entire match. However, with Crimson co-captain Cliff Nguyen battling for a three-set match on the court next to him, Wetzel knew that his contest meant something.

“When I was finishing my match,” Wetzel explained, “Cliffy had just started his third set, so I knew it was totally open and either [team] could win.”

It wasn’t easy, though. Harvard had a week between the Tulane and Illinois matches, and Wetzel was forced to take the first two days off entirely. After that, he had “to take it easy.”

“I would have loved to practice so much more,” he said, “but I just couldn’t. That’s why I probably didn’t get a good start to my match.”

Lacking rhythm after the layoff, Wetzel dropped the first set 6-2 to the Orange and Blue’s Chris Martin. The thrill of the day’s events, though—“I knew we had a chance to win, and it just gave me so much adrenaline”—was enough to spark a comeback, and Wetzel took the next two sets 6-2 and 6-1.

“I was still in pain,” he admitted, “but I was just battling through it—it was the last tournament of the season, so I was just going to give it all and put it all on the line and play for it.”

And he did, tying the dual match and keeping the Crimson’s hope alive.

“We had Martin on the court to win,” assistant coach Phil Parrish said simply, “and Martin came through.”

After a valiant comeback, Nguyen would go on to lose his third set, giving Illinois a 4-3 victory and sending the Harvard squad back to Cambridge.Still, the Crimson had a chance—all the way down to the last match—and that was something impressive in itself.

Harvard relied on a number of strong performances—junior Jonathan Chu defeated No. 51 Phil Stolt in straight sets, and senior Chris Chiou played what Harvard coach Dave Fish ’72 deemed “a career match.”As for Wetzel—the junior was full of surprises against Illinois.

“Martin Wetzel could hardly walk coming into the weekend and he comes out with a three-set win,” mused Fish with a laugh.

“I mean, where’s that coming from?”