The No. 16 Harvard men's tennis team came out of its toughest home match-up of the season with dual victories last weekend over No. 27 Kentucky and No. 12 Tennessee.

The Crimson came from behind against the Wildcats, winning 4-3 and then cruised past the Volunteers in a 6-1 upset.

"For the team, it was huge," said sophomore James Blake, NCAA champion and the only Ivy Leaguer to win back-to-back Rolex Nationals titles.

Led by Blake, the Crimson opened the weekend by outlasting the Wildcats in a grueling contest Saturday afternoon at the Murr Center. KENTUCKY  3 HARVARD  4 TENNESSEE  1 HARVARD  6

An enthusiastic--and somewhat rowdy--home crowd cheered as Blake avenged his sole loss from earlier in the season.

The Wildcats' Carlos Drada had beaten Blake in October at the University of Kentucky Invitational, but he proved no match for the collegiate champion this time, losing 6-3, 4-6, 6-0.

"It's always good to get a little revenge," Blake said. "The first time I played him I was a little tired and probably not playing my best."

While Blake went into the match intent upon redeeming his lone defeat of the season, Drada did not go down without a fight. After taking the first set, Blake nearly let him back into the match by losing the second.

"After the second set, I just made sure I brought up my concentration level," Blake said. "I wanted to put the pressure on him,...and he didn't come with the big points when he needed to."

Blake's singles win was important not just as a matter of personal pride but also for the Harvard squad, which came out of the opening doubles matches trailing Kentucky.

Though Blake and Harvard co-captain Kunj Majmudar defeated the Wildcats' Johan Hesoun and Patrik Johansson 8-6, the Crimson's second and third doubles pairs lost.

Harvard co-captain Mike Passarella and sophomore Scott Clark fell 10-8 after a tough tiebreaker. The No. 3 team of juniors John Doran and Joe Green also succumbed after an intense tiebreaker.

Both Green and Doran, however, went on to wintheir singles matches, as did Majmudar. Thesevictories were enough to secure Harvard's firstMurr Center triumph, a hard-fought 4-3 win.

Majmudar's singles and doubles performance wasparticularly inspiring to his teammates, as thesenior co-captain suffered flu symptoms throughoutthe weekend.

"He was obviously very sick, and he playedincredibly well," Blake said. "It's a testament tohis will power."

Overcoming the after-effects of his arduousplay Saturday, Majmudar said he came out "verystrong" against Tennessee.