Farzam Posts Personal Best in Defeating No. 7 Seed Johnston to Reach USTA B18s Nationals Quarterfinals; No. 10 Seed Gaines Comes Back Again to Advance to B16s Quarterfinals; US Teams Make Quarterfinals of ITF World Junior Tennis 14U Team Championships

©Colette Lewis 2025--

Kalamazoo MI--

No. 22 seed Matisse Farzam is making his fifth and final appearance in Kalamazoo his best, with the 18-year-old from Connecticut defeating No. 7 seed Noah Johnston 7-6(6), 6-1 Wednesday to crash the party of the Top 8 seeds advancing to Thursday's quarterfinals at the USTA Boys 18s and 16s National Championships.

On another warm and rain-free afternoon on Stowe Stadium Court 2, Farzam saved two set points in the first set tiebreaker and built his momentum from there.

"I double faulted and I missed a pass that I was kind of sitting on earlier in the breaker and I think it was a bit in my head," Farzam said. "But I tried to let it go. Noah was coming up with some great shots, he's super talented, a lefty, and has a little more in his arsenal than I do, especially when he comes forward. So at 4-6 I wanted to lock in and make him play, and I did, hit a really good strong return and he couldn't come up with the volley. Then I came up with good serve, we played a longer point and I got the error. I came up with a huge serve there T at 6-6 to go up 7-6, then I closed well returning, got myself in an offense position in the rally to take it."

Farzam said he hadn't made a round of 16 at a USTA Level 1 in several years, until he beat 2024 Kalamazoo 16s champion Gus Grumet in the fourth round yesterday 6-3, 7-5.

"I think since Winters two or three years ago, this is my first round of 16, and this is my first quarterfinal in any L1 going back to the 12s," said Farzam, who has now faced fellow left-handers in back-to-back matches. "I never did well here in Kalamazoo, never made it past the round of 32 in five years playing, I've definitely had some rough results here, but today I used the last four years of experience I've had here. It could be my last match here."

Farzam also gave credit to energy jelly beans his mom provided for keeping his level high in the second set.

"He held first (in the second set) and I was able to pull off six games in a row," Farzam said. "I think I really locked in, thinking I'm going to be here all day, and it paid off."

Farzam is heading to Clemson later this month, although his junior career will not end in Kalamazoo, with the US Open still on his schedule.

"I move in a week from now," said Farzam, who is the US Open junior qualifying as of right now. "I'm super excited, it's a great opportunity and I'm grateful for coach (Brandon) Wagner, (assistants) Austin Rapp and Sander Koning for helping me out. I know it's going to be a great path for my development. Hopefully I can get to playing at a high level in college and making it professionally."

Farzam will face 2024 18s finalist and No. 3 seed Jack Kennedy, who received a walkover due to injury from No. 14 seed Roy Horovitz. 

"Jack's an amazing player, an amazing guy, we're good friends," Farzam said. "We played (ITF J300) Indian Wells(2024), and he definitely kicked my butt a little bit. We've played doubles once or twice since then, but we're always practicing. I know he's the returning finalist and I'm coming in as the underdog a little bit more, so hopefully I can make it a good match."

Top seed Darwin Blanch advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4 6-3 win over No. 10 seed Maxwell Exsted and will play No. 5 seed Ronit Karki, the Wimbledon boys finalist, who defeated No. 13 seed Ilija Palavestra 7-5, 6-3.

In the bottom half, No. 2 seed Cooper Woestendick, a 6-2, 6-2 winner over unseeded Ford McCollum, will face No. 6 seed Keaton Hance, who roared past No. 9 seed Dominick Mosejczuk 6-0, 6-1. No. 8 seed Jack Satterfield took out No. 15 seed Lukas Phimvongsa 6-1, 6-2 and will play No. 4 seed Benjamin Willwerth, who escaped in the only three-setter of the day, beating No. 11 seed Maximus Dussault 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. 

Dussault broke Willwerth serving at 3-4 in the third set to serve for the match at 5-3, but double faults kept him from getting to a match point and his opportunity was gone, with Willwerth winning the final four games of the match.

The quarterfinals will begin at 10:30 Thursday morning on Courts 2 and 3, with the Kennedy-Farzam and Willwerth-Satterfield matches. The Blanch-Karki and Hance-Woestendick matches will follow.

The boys 16s quarterfinals are set for Friday, with the top 4 seeds continuing to roll through the competition in Thursday's fifth round.

Top seed Michael Antonius defeated No. 33 seed Kamil Stolarczyk 6-1, 6-1, while No. 2 seed Andrew Johnson had his toughest match of the week, beat No. 33 seed Nile Ung 6-3, 6-2 after trailing 3-1 in the opening set.

Antonius will face No. 5 seed Marcel Latak, a 6-4, 7-6(3) winner over No. 31 seed Joseph Nau, and Johnson will play No. 7 seed Safir Azam, who beat No. 11 seed Izyan Ahmad 6-3, 6-3.

No. 16 seed Colin McPeek ended the run of unseeded Andrej Markovic 6-2, 6-1 and will play No. 4 seed Vihaan Reddy a 6-1, 6-3 winner over No. 9 seed Sean Grosman.

No. 3 seed Roshan Santhosh defeated No. 15 seed Mason Vaughan 6-3, 6-2 and will face the only player who had to navigate a third set, No. 10 seed Jerrid Gaines Jr.  Gaines, who needed nearly four hours and saved match points to beat No. 30 seed Rowan Qalbani on Tuesday 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-4, came from a set down again today, defeating No. 6 seed and 16s Clay Courts champion Keshav Muthuvel 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Gaines, a 15-year-old from Florida, said he felt better than he expected to after that marathon singles match and a doubles match that followed.

"I would say I felt fine," Gaines said "I woke up sore in my legs and lower back, so I couldn't have the best warmup today, I was just warming up for 15 minutes, go see the trainer, get stretched out. I actually felt well today, better than I thought I would feel. It was a crazy match, I was down I believe two when he was serving. It was just fate and I said, I'm just going to keep going, and I'm not giving it away."

Gaines was satisfied with the level he produced in the second and third sets of today's match, once he wrested control of the points from Muthuvel.

"I had to trust in the one-two punch with the serve and forehand," Gaines said. "Once I had a great game, the momentum started to switch and I started playing some amazing tennis. The third set was good tennis from both of us. I had a great game to break at 2-all. I played some unbelievable tennis and so did he, a deuce game, and then after that tried to keep the momentum, not let him back in the match."

Gaines and Santhosh have not played, but Gaines is familiar with his game.

"I've seen him at a lot tournaments, I know him well," Gaines said. "I'm expecting good tennis tomorrow; he's obviously a great player and I'm looking forward to it."

The 16s will play their doubles quarterfinals Thursday afternoon begining at 2:00 p.m.  Thursday is Kids Day at the Nats, with more information about all the activities scheduled from 4:30 p.m. available here.

The 16s doubles quarterfinals will feature top seeds Santhosh and Antionius, No. 2 seeds Johnson and Vaughan, three other seeded teams and three unseeded teams.

The 18s doubles quarterfinals were played Wednesday evening, with the top two seeds reaching the semifinals, which are scheduled for Friday afternoon.

No. 1 seeds Cooper Woestendick and Maxwell Exsted defeated No. 10 seed Jacob Olar and Jack Kennedy 6-1, 6-2 and will face No. 8 seeds Justin Lin and Bryan Assi. Lin and Assi beat No. 9 seeds Nicholas Patrick and James Weber 6-3, 6-4.

No. 2 seeds Benjamin Willwerth and Noah Johnston defeated No. 5 seeds Arnav Bhandari and Jack Satterfield 6-3, 6-3 and will play the unseeded team of Noble Renfrow and Theo Hegarty, who upset No. 3 seeds Ryan Cozad and Keaton Hance 6-2, 4-6, 11-9.  Renfrow and Hegarty trailed 8-6 in the tiebreaker, but won the next three points to earn their first match point. They were in control of the point, while Hance and Cozad were both scrambling to retrieve overheads and keep them in play when a ball came all the way over from two courts away to cause a let. Hance, with another first serve, hit a good one, saving that match point, but he missed a volley on the next point to set up a second. Hance took a big cut on Renfrow's second serve, but just missed it wide, ending the match.

See the ustaboys.com website for live streaming and live scoring links for all matches at Stowe, including the morning consolation matches, scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.

At the USTA Girls National 16s and 18s in San Diego, the 16s quarterfinals are set for Thursday.  No. 2 seed Amiria Kokinis, the Easter Bowl champion, lost to Yilin Chen on Tuesday, while No. 3 seed Welles Newman had to retire with an injury Tuesday.

Girls 16s quarterfinals:

Carlota Moreno[1] v Hannah Ayrault[17]

Madeline Cleary[17] v Brooke Kwon[33]

Kiana Smith v Paige Wygodzki[4]

Nikol Davletshina[33] v Yilin Chen[17]

In the G18s, top seeds Akasha Urhobo and Julieta Pareja are through to Thursday's round of 16, but No. 4 seed Kristina Penickova lost Tuesday to Kaya Moe[33] and No. 3 seed Monika Ekstrand lost today to Ava Rodriguez[17] 3-6, 6-1, 6-3.

At the ITF World Junior Tennis 14U team championships in Prostejov Czech Republic, the USA teams both advanced out of their groups into the quarterfinals. 

The top-seeded US girls, despite a loss to Brazil on opening day, finished No. 1 in their group, while Brazil failed to advance after a loss to China. The US boys lost to France today 2-1, but advanced by finishing second in the group by a slim margin over the Czech Republic.

The boys will play Japan and the girls will play Taiwan in Thursday's quarterfinals.

All results can be found at the ITF tournament site. Live scoring is available here.