Gelletich Ousts No. 7 Seed Mayew, No. 2 Seed Blanch Survives Test to Advance in Kalamazoo 18s; Rain Cancels 16s Play; Rundown of Early Round Results from USTA Nationals; US Teams Among Favorites at ITF World Junior Tennis 14U Event

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Kalamazoo MI--

After a warm and sunny weekend, rain returned Monday morning, washing away the 16s third round singles matches originally scheduled for day four and both 16s and 18s doubles third round matches.

But when the thunderstorms moved out and the courts dried by early afternoon, the 32 third round singles matches in 18s did finish, much to the relief of No. 2 seed Darwin Blanch.

Blanch received a walkover in the second round Saturday, and because he is not playing doubles this week, he had yet to hit a ball that counted after arriving from Orlando Thursday. 

The 2022 Kalamazoo 16s champion looked rusty at the start of his 6-4, 7-5 win over Yale rising freshman Krish Gupta, a 33 seed. Down 4-1 in the opening set, Blanch put the blame squarely on his poor play, although Gupta did contribute to that.

"I didn't play even close to my average level today," said the 16-year-old left-hander, who trains at the Ferrero Academy in Spain. "I was feeling not so good on court at all, I was missing a lot of shots. He was playing pretty well, but I obviously wasn't. When I was 4-1 down in the first set, I was thinking to just keep calm and not show a lot of frustration, just make more balls, not be so aggressive, play with more margin."

That switch in strategy led to five straight games and the first set, but Gupta was not ready to concede anything, taking a 4-1 lead in the second set.

"In the second set I think I got a little more frustrated because he was still playing well," said Blanch. "I thought his level would drop a little bit, but he didn't, so I kind of did the same thing as the first set and it worked again, so I'm pretty happy I got the win."

Kalamazoo is the first junior tournament Blanch has played and will play all year, and it took him some time to get accustomed to calling his own lines again. The tournament has chair umpires for every match, but their role is to correct obvious mistakes in lines called by players until full officiating crews are assigned later in the tournament.

"It's a little weird, at the start, I was like, the ref isn't calling anything," said Blanch, who reached the final of a $15K last month in Tunisia before flying to Orlando to train with many of the players who among the top seeds here in Kalamazoo. "As the match went on, I started to get used to it, but it's been a whole year, since here last year. I was trying to adapt and as the match went on I got it."

Blanch's 2023 Kalamazoo ended on the same court where he played today, Court 2, when he lost to eventual champion Learner Tien in quarterfinalss, the only match Blanch has lost at Kalamazoo.

"He's been playing fantastic tennis this summer, won like five tournaments in a row," said Blanch, who wouldn't have minded another chance to play Tien again here this year. "He totally deserves a (US Open) wild card. I still have a little scar from that loss last year, a set and a break up, but hopefully I'll get a chance to play him again and see how it goes."

Blanch is scheduled to play No. 18 seed Nikita Filin on Wednesday.

Top seed Trevor Svajda, who lost to Tien in last year's final, had a much less dramatic win today on Stowe Stadium's Acker Center Court, defeating Meecah Bigun, a No. 33 seed, 6-2, 6-1.  No. 3 seed Kaylan Bigun beat No. 33 seed Nathan Gold 6-1, 6-2 and No. 4 seed Cooper Woestendick, the 2023 16s champion, defeated unseeded Brody Nejedly Krall 6-3, 6-1.

The only top 16 seed to fall in the third round was No. 7 seed Ian Mayew, who was beaten by Indiana rising freshman Braeden Gelletich 6-1, 2-6, 6-2.

Gelletich, who has been among the top players in the USTA National 18s rankings all year, relished his role as underdog against Mayew, who is 31 in the ITF world junior rankings.

"I went out there with nothing to lose," said the 18-year-old from Goshen New York. "I still think I'm kind of below their level, have a few things to work on. On any particular day, I can compete with anybody, but I hope to get more solid, so I can do it day after day. Here there's no expectations for me to win, no real pressure for me to win, until that last game, when I was up 40-15, I kind of felt the pressure then."

Gelletich used the 10-minute break between the second and third sets to reassess his strategy in a discussion his father and coach Les Smith.

"Basically, toward the end of the second set, he started tiring," Gelletich said. "They noticed that, and told me not to go for too much, inside of pulling him out wide, hit it up the middle, kind of wait him out. But after I broke him to go up 3-1 in the third set, I started ripping the ball, feeling myself. He hit some good shots and came in and I passed him, hit a few balls down the line."

Gelletich's opponent in Wednesday's third round is No. 20 seed Matthew Forbes.

There are three unseeded players in the 18s fourth round(round of 32): Maximus Dussault, Andrew Li(who face each other) and John Cross.

The weather forecast for Tuesday puts the chance of rain at 90%, so preparations are being made for the 16s third round singles matches to be played indoors beginning at 9 a.m. See ustaboys.com for up-to-date information on the doubles and feed-in schedules.

In San Diego, the top 16 seeds in the 18s division advanced to the third round. The 16s are still playing their third round matches, with three Top 16 seeds already out: No. 11 Carlota Moreno, No. 13 Emerey Gross and No. 15 seed Ellery Mendell.

At the girls 14s in Rome Georgia, five of the top 16 seeds are out after three rounds, including No. 4 seed Corinne Winningham and No. 7 seed Savannah Schmitz.

At the girls 12s in Peachtree Corners Georgia, all of the top 16 seeds are through to the third round, and the top 16 have all reached the third round at the boys 12s in Mobile Alabama.

In the boys 14s in Mobile, three of the top 16 seeds are out after three rounds: No. 4 Akshay Mirmira, No. 6 Alexander Totoian and No. 9 seed Dylan Meineke.

The ITF World Junior Tennis team competition began today in Prostejov Czech Republic, with the United States boys the No. 1 seeds and United States girls team the No. 2 seeds. Michael Antonius, Jordan Lee and Teodor Davidov are on the boys team, which won their first match in round robin play today against Morocco. Sylvain Guichard is the team captain. Maggie Sohns, Welles Newman and Raya Kotseva are on the girls team, captained by Thierry Champion. They also went 3-0 in their first round robin match, playing today against Mexico. 

Links to live streaming and live scoring can be found here.