Boys 18s Top Seeds Blanch and Woestendick Lead Parade of Seeds Through to Third Round in Kalamazoo, 16s Seeds Take Center Stage Sunday; Kang Advances to Edwardsville M25 Final; Svajda Seeks Another ATP Challenger Title in Lexington

©Colette Lewis 2025--

Kalamazoo MI--

A second day of superb weather was the backdrop for the march of  seeds into the third round Saturday at the USTA Boys 18s and 16s National Championships in Kalamazoo, with the top 23 seeds in the 18s division posting victories.

Connor Plunkett of New York defeated 2022 boys 16s finalist Lachlan Gaskell, the No. 24 seed, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, while two other Top 32 seeds fell in their first action of the tournament. Austin Cohen beat No. 29 seed Yashwin Krishnakumar 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 and Micah Ward defeated No. 32 seed Ethan Chung to advance to the third round.  Seven No. 33 seeds also move into the consolation tournament after losing in the second round today.

Top seed Darwin Blanch, who had not played a junior match since Kalamazoo last year, had some adjustments to make today, but he managed to get past Henry Lessard, who had a large cheering section behind Court 2,  6-2, 7-5.

Lessard, a 17-year-old from Columbus Ohio, was up a break at 4-2 in the second set, but Blanch got the break back to quiet the chants of "Let's Go Henry" that erupted on occasion.

"It doesn't bother me it all, honestly," said the 17-year-old left-hander, who understands the underdog will always get the crowd support early in the tournament. "More so it motivates me. I was surprised, I knew the crowd would be cheering for him, he had like a whole team there. I was like, am I at Davis Cup or what? But it doesn't affect me at all, it just surprised me had such a big team cheering for him."

Calling his own lines again after a year on the ITF men's and ATP Challenger circuit, where a chair and lines umpires are standard, was a bit more of an obstacle for Blanch.

"I swear like ten balls were this far out," said Blanch, displaying a three or four inch spread with his hand. "and I didn't call them. It was really tough to get the hang of it, because I wasn't used to it at all."

Blanch is not shying away from the reason he is back this year, with the 2022 Boys 16s champion eyeing the US Open main draw wild card that goes to the winner.

"The whole reason I came back is for the wild card," Blanch said. "Seeded 1 this time, probably expected to win, and honestly, I haven't been used to that lately because I've been playing pros and I'm always the youngest one, so not much pressure. This is definitely a change.

Blanch's ATP ranking, currently 404, includes two titles this year on the ITF men's World Tennis Tour: an M15 in February, an M25 in June, and an M25 final last month.

"I'm obviously happy with the way I'm playing this year," said Blanch, who was upset in the fourth round by Nikita Filin last year in Kalamazoo. "I feel like I've improved a lot. But coming here, any match can be complicated. I definitely learned that last year; I think I was a little over confident, matches just kind of surprised me. So this year, I'm going to take it match by match, just stick in there. I think that's the main thing I learned from last year, just focus on each match and go in thinking that anyone can beat me."

Blanch will face No. 33 seed Nicholas Mekhael, a semifinalist last month at the USTA 18s Clay Courts, in the third round Monday.

No. 2 seed Cooper Woestendick began his fifth Kalamazoo today with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Kyle Chesman, with the 18-year-old from Kansas reflecting on all the success he's had on the Stowe Stadium courts since reaching the semifinals as a 14-year-old in 2021.

"It's different feeling, I want to say the last two years, but this year for sure," said Woestendick, who turns 19 in November. "I'm probably the oldest guy in the draw (there are actually 30 players competing in the 18s born in 2006, and several will turn 19 next month), and a veteran of K-Zoo now. It's a good feeling, especially after being in college, coming here, seeing all my friends again and get to play this prestigious tournament one more time."

Woestendick has never had an early exit in the tournament, making the quarterfinals in the 16s in 2022, winning the 16s title in 2023 and reaching the 18s semifinals last year. 

"I've had some really good success here, but my maturity level is not the same, which you would hope from a 14-year-old kid," said Woestendick, who helped TCU reach the finals of ITA Team Indoor and NCAA Team championships in his first semester in Fort Worth. "I'm a lot more mature now, I feel a lot more comfortable around the grounds here. There's a different feel from most tournaments, there's a lot of pressure, and you can see a lot of people feel that pressure, a lot of upsets, some underdogs coming through. I like that, facing the pressure, because you have to be mentally strong."

Woestendick will play No. 33 seed David Wu in the third round Monday.

No. 3 seed and 2024 finalist Jack Kennedy cruised through his first Kalamazoo match since his loss to Matt Forbes in last year's final, beating Bode Campbell 6-0, 6-0.

No. 4 seed Benjamin Willwerth was in the most precarious position of any of the Top 8 seeds, dropping the first set to Magnus Weng before rebounding for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 victory.

Willwerth and partner Noah Johnston, the Roland Garros boys doubles finalists, also were in trouble in their second round doubles match this evening at Stowe Stadium. The No. 2 seeds were outplayed by Matisse Farzam and Dylan Long for the first half of the match before Willwerth and Johnson took control in the second half for a 6-7(2), 6-3, 10-5 victory.

Top seeds Woestendick and Maxwell Exsted breezed into the third round, with the 2024 Australian Open boys champions defeating Aaditt Rishi and Praneet Tulluri 6-0, 6-2. 

There are no 18s main draw singles matches Sunday, with the seeded players in the 16s taking the courts for the first time. Kalamazoo's Sam Schumacher, who had enthusiastic support from the crowd Saturday afternoon during his 7-5, 6-1 win over Areeb Mefta, will face No. 33 seed Liam Collins at 9 a.m. Sunday.

For more on Schumacher, see this article from the Kalamazoo YMCA, his home courts.

Sunday's schedule:

8:00am - 11:00am Boys 16s Main Draw Singles 2nd Round
10:30am - 2:30pm Boys 18s Feed-in 2nd Round
2:30pm - 4:30pm Boys 16s Doubles 2nd Round
5:00pm - 5:30pm Boys 18s Doubles 3rd Round

Links to live streaming (Stowe Courts only) and live scoring (all courts) can be found at ustaboys.com.

At the USTA Girls 18s and 16s National Championships in San Diego, the first round in the 16s division was completed today, with the first round of the 18s and second round of the 16s on Sunday. Cracked Racquets will be providing coverage of the event at their YouTube Channel.

Stanford rising junior Kyle Kang is through to the final of the M25 in Edwardsville Illinois, after the No. 7 seed defeated No. 6 seed Aidan Kim, a rising junior at Ohio State, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Kang will play No. 3 seed Aidan McHugh of Great Britain, who beat qualifier Marko Miladinovic(Baylor) of Serbia 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.

Kang already has one Edwardsville title, winning the doubles championship this evening with teammate (and 2021 Kalamazoo 16s champion) Alexander Razeghi. The unseeded pair defeated unseeded Spencer Johnson(UCLA) and Nicolas Kotzen(Columbia) 6-7(6), 7-5, 10-8.

Two-time Kalamazoo 18s champion Zachary Svajda(2019 and 2021) will play in his second Challenger final in the past month, with the 22-year-old, seeded No. 6, beating Yu Hsiou Hsu of Taiwan 6-1, 6-3 at the Lexington 75. Svajda, who won the Newport Challenger 125 in July, will face unseeded Bernard Tomic of Australia, who beat No. 2 seed Eliot Spizzirri 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(3).

The doubles title in Lexington went to No. 2 seeds Anirudh Chandrasekar and Ramkumar Ramanathan of India, who beat Shu and Tsung-Hao Huang of Taiwan 6-4, 6-4 in the final.

At the women's W75 in Lexington, both Americans lost, with qualifier Fiona Crawley(UNC) falling to No. 7 seed Janice Tjen(Pepperdine) of Indonesia 6-3, 6-2 and No. 2 seed Varvara Lepchenko losing to No. 4 seed Xiyu Wang of China 6-4, 6-3.

Ayana Akli(South Carolina) and Eryn Cayetano(USC) won the doubles title, beating Alana Smith(NC State) and Elvin Kalieva 4-6, 6-2, 10-4 in the all-USA, all-unseeded final.

At the ATP Masters 1000 in Toronto, Alex Michelsen advanced to the quarterfinals of a 1000 for the first time with a 6-3, 6-3 win over friend and training partner Learner Tien(USC).

Canadian Victoria Mboko, who turns 19 next month, beat top seed Coco Gauff 6-1, 6-4 at the WTA 1000 in Montreal to advance to the quarterfinals.