Top Seeds in Kalamazoo 16s Match 18s Counterparts with Second Round Dominance; Kang Wins Edwardsville M25; Sjavda Claims ATP Challenger 75 in Lexington; ITF 14U World Junior Tennis Team Event Begins Monday in Czech Republic

©Colette Lewis 2025--
Kalamazoo MI--

Saturday was short of drama, with all Top 16 seeds in the 18s division of the USTA Boys Nationals reaching the third round. Sunday, with similarly beautiful weather, produced even more dominating performances as the seeds in the 16s division played their first matches after opening round byes.

No. 1 seed Michael Antonius, No. 2 seed Andrew Johnson and No. 3 seed Roshan Santhosh lost only three games between them, and again, all Top 16 seeds reached the third round.

The only dramatic match among the Top 8 seeds playing at Stowe Stadium was No. 5 seed Marcel Latak's comeback over Akshay Mirmira, with this year's Easter Bowl champion breaking in the final game to secure a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win in over two-and-a-half hours. 

Antonius defeated Casra Afsharipour 6-0, 6-0 in 56 minutes in his Kalamazoo debut.

"I was really thinking just keep my head up and play the next point," said the 15-year-old from Buffalo New York, who trains at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona. "I knew I was the favorite, but my opponent was tricky and he was quick, and pretty consistent. So I was just trying not to rush anything, just take one point at a time. It's a long tournament and you can't win a tournament in a day. It doesn't matter if it was 4 and 4 or 0 and 0, you just have to get the job done."

Antonius arrived in Kalamazoo full of confidence, after winning the USTA National 18s Clay Courts last month and then earning his first ATP points at the USTA Pro Circuit M15 in Rochester New York.

"I was playing over in Europe on red clay, so I thought that helped me get ready, but it was my first Clay Courts Nationals, so I was happy to win," said Antonius, who did not drop a set in his seven victories.

The No. 1 seed at the Clays, Antonius then traveled north to make his Pro Circuit debut, and thanks to his ITF Top 100 junior ranking, he did not need a wild card, qualifying for the main draw via the ITF's Junior Reserved program. Facing top seed Leo Vithoontien of Japan, Antonius got his first ATP point when Vithoontien retired trailing 6-3, 4-1.

"I went from being the one seed to drawing the one seed," said Antonius, who went on to reach the quarterfinals, where he lost to 2019 Kalamazoo 16s champion Alex Bernard, a rising senior at Ohio State. "I was pretty nervous to say the least. But I thought my level was good, I knew I had the level to compete, just didn't want to have too high of expectations, wanted to play with no pressure."

Antonius's two ATP points are more than all but six of the players in the 18s draw, but the 16s seemed like the smart bet for him in Kalamazoo.

"My coach (Sylvain Guichard at USTA) thought playing the 16s would be good," said Antonius, who is now 6-foot-3 and says he is still growing. "His thinking was the 18s would be less matches, even though the 16s here is stronger than any other National because of the US Open Junior wild card. I'm trying to get that wild card, I'm in qualies now, and get some matches in. I guess we'll see at the end of the week how things are going."

Johnson also recently returned from a trip to play on European clay this summer, but he raced home to Los Angeles to compete in the SoCal Pro Series, where he earned his first ATP point on the courts where he trains at the Jack Kramer Club.

"I had a red-eye that night to go back home and I was supposed to play that same day," said Johnson, who finished fifth in his Kalamazoo debut in 2024. "But Peter(Smith) pulled some strings for me and I played the day after."

Johnson, who defeated Dash Parkinson-Lubold 6-2, 6-0 on Court 3 in 57 minutes, was happy with his level and is more comfortable in his second visit here.

"I felt pretty good, I would say, I wasn't nervous," said Johnson, who turns 16 later this month. "I'm used to the crowds. There might be a little more pressure with the seeding, but I've been training for this, so hopefully I'll get through it."

Santhosh also kept his time on court under an hour, defeating Victor Pignaton 6-1, 6-0 in 59 minutes.  No. 4 seed Vihaan Reddy needed nearly two hours to beat Andrew Zielinski, although the score was a deceptively routine one of 6-1, 6-3.

The 33 seeds were not as reliable as the Top 32, which lost only No. 25 Artem Dmytrenko and No. 26 Rafael Lopez. Andrej Markovic defeated Dmytrenko 6-7(4), 7-6(7), 6-1 and Ved Vanga downed Lopez 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. 13 No. 33 seeds were beaten in their first matches after having byes in the first round.

All 16s and 18s third round singles are Monday, at Stowe Stadium, with the consolation matches in both 16s and 18s at Western Michigan University. There are no doubles on Monday's schedule, with the day again expected to be rain-free.

Live streaming of the Stowe Stadium matches and live scoring of all matches can be accessed through links on the ustaboys.com website.

In the third round of B18s doubles, two Top 8 seeds failed to reach the round of 16, with Gus Grumet and Winston Lee defeating No. 6 seeds Nolan Balthazor and Yashwin Krishnakumar 6-2, 6-3 and Nathan Gold and Shaan Patel beating No. 7 seeds Tyler Lee and Andre Alcantara 3-6, 6-4, 10-6. Top seeds Cooper Woestendick and Maxwell Exsted won in straight sets, as did No. 2 seeds Noah Johnston and Benjamin Willwerth.

Stanford rising junior Kyle Kang won his second USTA Pro Circuit singles title, adding to the doubles title he won yesterday with teammate Alexander Razeghi. The seventh-seeded Kang, who has played eight consecutive weeks on the USTA Pro Circuit this summer, winning the M15 in Los Angeles at the beginning of July, defeated No. 3 seed Aidan McHugh of Great Britain 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 in today's final. Kang, who is 20-6 over those eight weeks, received a wild card into the ATP Challenger 75 in Chicago this coming week.

At the ATP Challenger 75 in Lexington Kentucky, two-time Kalamazoo 18s champion Zachary Svajda claimed his sixth Challenger title. Svajda, the No. 6 seed, defeated Bernard Tomic of Australia 2-6, 6-3, 6-2. Svajda, now 6-1 in Challenger finals, is up to 132 in the ATP live rankings.

Xiyu Wang of China, the 2018 US Open girls champion, won the USTA Pro Circuit W75 in Lexington Kentucky. Wang, the No. 4 seed, beat No. 7 seed Janice Tjen(Pepperdine) of Indonesia 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in today's final.

The United States begins its quest for the ITF 14U World Junior Tennis team titles tomorrow in the Czech Republic. The US girls-- Emery Combs, Caroline Shao and Olivia De Los Reyes--are the No. 1 seeds. The US boys--Tristan Ascenzo, Indra Vergne and Alexander Anderson--are the No. 3 seeds. USTA National Coaches Celeste Frey and Jon Glover are the captains. Below is the schedule for Monday, with the seeding included.

This preview article from the ITF promises live streaming and live scoring for the event.