Kalamazoo Third Round Ends Under the Lights, with No Major Upsets in Boys 18s or 16s; Top-Seeded Teams Lose Opening Matches in Group Play at ITF 14U World Junior Tennis Competition; McNally and Nava Lead US Open Wild Card Race

©Colette Lewis 2025--
Kalamazoo MI--

A fourth straight day of perfect tennis weather led to perfection in the seeds' performances as well, with the Top 16 seeds in both divisions of USTA Boys National Championships advancing to Tuesday's round of 32.

Unlike during the weekend, when second round matches were generally straightforward for the top seeds, challenging matches were the norm in the 64 contests Monday at Stowe Stadium, with the final matches in the 18s not completed until after 10 p.m. due to the lengthy matches throughout the day.

In the 16s division, No. 3 seed Roshan Santhosh and No. 6 seed Keshav Muthuvel, playing next to one another on Court 3 and George Acker Court 1, both dropped the first set. Muthuvel recovered to beat No. 33 seed Maxwell Paape 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, while Santhosh reached the fourth round when Simon Hayal, another 33 seed, retired trailing 3-6, 6-4, 4-1 in the final set. Hayal took a medical timeout before the final game of the second set, and  one point into that tenth game, vomited in the trash can near the court. He continued, lost the game, and the 10-minute break between sets didn't help the 16-year-old left-hander from Atlanta regain any form in the final set.

No. 8 seed Tristan Stratton also struggled mightily with fellow New Yorker Antanas Daugis, a 33 seed, before posting a three-hour 6-7(0), 7-6(3), 6-4 victory.  Stratton will play one of three unseeded players in left in the 16s final 32, Andrej Markovic, who followed up his win over No. 25 seed Artem Dmytrenko Sunday with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over No. 33 seed Liam Collins today.

16s top seeds Michael Antonius and Andrew Johnson continued to cruise, losing only two games between them today, the same as yesterday. No. 1 seed Antonius beat No. 33 seed Anish Poojari 6-1, 6-0, while Johnson took out Jacob Pletka by the same score.

The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the 18s had considerable more trouble, with 2022 16s champion Darwin Blanch beating No. 33 seed Nicholas Mekhael 6-4, 6-4 and 2023 16s champion Cooper Woestendick needing two hours and 17 minutes to get past No. 33 seed David Wu 7-5, 6-4.

No. 3 seed Jack Kennedy and No. 4 seed Benjamin Willwerth got through in straight sets, but No. 5 seed Ronit Karki, the 2025 Wimbledon boys finalist, needed over three hours to post a 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-4 win over Alex Suhanitski of New York.

Karki said he woke up to a text from a friend in the Eastern section warning him to be ready for a tough match today.

"My good friend texted me, he knows the guy pretty well and he's like, 'watch out for this guy, be ready today,'" said the 17-year-old from New Jersey. "I'm not underestimating anybody, especially at Kalamazoo, and he played really well. I was not surprised he was a great player."

Karki, who played on Wimbledon Court One less than a month ago, was not concerned that he was on Court 11, the most remote court at Stowe Stadium, with the sheds and scaffolding and squeegees behind the court a far cry from the popping champagne corks and manicured garden atmosphere at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

"Once the match got started, it didn't make that much difference," Karki said. "It was mostly just getting used to conditions in general. It's obviously not going to be exactly how Wimbledon was, so I had to make some adjustments, but I think I did a pretty good job of just staying calm throughout the second and third."

Karki, who won three consecutive matches at Wimbledon from a set down, said his experience and confidence were keys to his coming out on top.

"It's just a little bit more experience this year, a little bit more solid from the legs, and I just trusted my game when I hit the ball aggressively a little more this year and I think that made the difference," Karki said.

Karki's opponent on Tuesday will be local favorite Simon Caldwell, the No. 23 seed, who had a much quicker third round match on Court 2, beating Zen Uehling 6-2, 6-0.  The 18-year-old from Grand Rapids, a quarterfinalist in the 16s in 2023, played Karki at an ITF J200 in Canada back in April, falling 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-2.

"It was a close match," Karki said. "And he's always done pretty well here, so it will be a good match for sure."

Tuesday schedule at Stowe Stadium will feature all 32 round of 16 matches in the 16s and 18s. The fourth round of 18s doubles will be at Stowe beginning at 4 p.m., with the third round of 16s doubles at Western Michigan beginning at 4:30 p.m.

Links to live streaming and live scoring can be found at ustaboys.com.

At the ustagirlsnationals.com, there were no major upsets in the G18s, with the seeds playing for the first time today. The  G16s, which are through to the fourth round, still have their Top 4 seeds alive, but have lost five Top 16 seeds.

Cracked Racquets is providing live streaming at their YouTube channel.

The No. 1 seeds at the ITF World Junior Tennis 14U Team Championships in the Czech Republic suffered losses in the opening round of group play today. The No. 1 USA girls lost to Brazil 2-1, and No. 1 Spain boys lost to Korea 2-1. Both teams can still advance to the quarterfinals, with two more matches left in group play.  The No. 3 seeds US boys beat the Czech Republic 2-1, winning both singles matches, but dropping the doubles match.

The results from the USA matches are below. The live scoring and live streaming links are available at the ITF junior website.

Emilio Nava and Caty McNally led the USTA's US Open Wild Card Race as it heads into its last week. The USTA initially had Zachary Svajda in the lead before sending out this corrected tally less than an hour later.

Orlando, Fla., August 4, 2025 – Standings below corrected to accurately reflect Emilio Nava in the lead of the Men's Challenge.

 

For both the men and the women, results from the first two rounds of the Cincinnati Open will be included if those rounds are completed by the end of the day on Monday, August 11. If second round matches are not completed by that deadline, then only first-round results will be considered.

 

The full standings with eight days to go: 

 

 

Women's Standings:

(Player's current ranking in parentheses)

 

1. Caty McNally (116) - 165
2. Venus Williams (643) - 60
3. Fiona Crawley (327) - 44
4. Amelia Honer (722) - 35
5. Varvara Lepchenko (126) - 29

 

Men's Standings:

(Player's current ranking in parentheses)

 

1. Emilio Nava (114) - 120

2. Zachary Svajda (148) - 116
3. Eliot Spizzirri (124) - 66
4. Andres Martin (275) - 61
5. Govind Nanda (344) - 38

 

The men's wild card will go to the American with the highest cumulative total of ATP singles ranking points earned from their best four results over six weeks. The Men's Challenge counts outdoor and indoor hard-court events at the M25-level and above around the world. 

 

The women's wild card will go to the American with the highest cumulative total of WTA singles ranking points earned from their best two results over three weeks. The Women's Challenge counts outdoor and indoor hard-court events at the W35-level and above around the world.