Brooksby Wins Battle of Last Two Kalamazoo Champions at Cleveland Challenger; Georgia Gwinnett Sets New Collegiate Win Record; Krug Advances at ITF Grade 1 in Colombia with Win Over No. 2 Seed

The atmosphere at the ATP Cleveland Challenger for today's first round match between Jenson Brooksby and wild card Zachary Svajda was as far from a Kalamazoo National finals as you can imagine, with no spectators, no ballrunners, no noise of any kind. But the contest between the last two Kalamazoo 18s champions, won by Brooksby 7-6(4), 7-6(5), was extremely competitive, producing some excellent tennis despite the unusually quiet surroundings.

The 18-year-old Svajda, who defeated Govind Nanda in the 2019 Kalamazoo final, got the first break of the match and had a set point at 5-3 40-30, but he netted a forehand, and Brooksby broke back. There were no breaks of serve in the tiebreaker until Svajda made a backhand error serving at 4-4; Brooksby took full advantage of that one mistake, taking the next two points to close out the 63-minute set.

Svajda, who played more aggressively from the baseline throughout most of the match, and came in to the net to volley whenever feasible, went up a break twice in the second set, at 3-2 and 4-3, but both times Brooksby broke back. Using his anticipation to somehow hit winners when Svajda appeared to have total control of the point at the net, Brooksby was able to secure a point when he needed it. In the second set tiebreaker, he lost serve to go down 5-4, but won the next three points, sealing the two-hour and 15 minute victory with a good second serve that Svajda couldn't get back in play. Although there were more than 500 places in the ATP rankings separating them, just a few points were the difference in today's match.

The 20-year-old Brooksby, who beat Brandon Nakashima in the 2018 Kalamazoo final, will face the winner of the match between Felix Corwin(Minnesota) and Canada's Brayden Schnur(North Carolina) in the second round.

In other notable first round results today, North Carolina State fifth-year senior Alexis Galarneau of Canada, a qualifier, defeated Shuichi Sekiguchi of Japan 6-3, 6-1 and will play Donald Young in the second round.  Both seeded Americans lost, with No. 5 Mitchell Krueger going out to Darian King of Barbados 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, and No. 7 seed Thai Kwiatkowski(Virginia) losing to Bjorn Fratangelo 6-4, 6-2. Illinois senior Aleks Kovacevic, another qualifier, beat No. 8 seed Roberto Cid(South Florida) of the Dominican Republic 6-2, 6-4. Christopher Eubanks and wild card Roy Smith were the other Americans to pick up first round wins today.

Perennial NAIA champion Georgia Gwinnett men's program set a record for most consecutive wins in college sports history yesterday, earning their 138th straight victory to pass the University of Miami's mark of 137 consecutive wins, with that record also in the sport of tennis. For more on what coach Chase Hodges and his players have accomplished since the program was founded in 2013, see this article from the USTA.

Several results from tonight's matches have not yet been posted at the ITF Grade 1 in Barranquilla Colombia, but in results that were recorded today, No. 2 seed Bianca Behulova of Slovakia was eliminated. Fifteen-year-old American Ava Krug advanced to the second round when Behulova retired trailing 6-3, 1-0. The top seed in the boys draw, Joao Victor Couto Loureiro of Brazil, was replaced in the draw by American Nicolas Pinzon Moreno, who then lost to fellow American Timothy Phung 6-2, 6-3.