Wild Cards Johnson and Newman Reach Round of 16 at US Open Junior Championships; Kennedy and Klugman Earn Three-Set Wins in Armstrong; Alternates Spurling and McCollum End Junior Slam Run of Wazny and Paldanius; Cash and Tracy Advance to Men's Doubles Quarterfinals

©Colette Lewis 2025--
Flushing Meadows, NY--

Seven Americans are through to the round of 16 at their home slam at the US Open Junior Championships, with half of Tuesday's quartet of winners wild cards making their junior slam debuts.

Fifteen-year-old Welles Newman saved a match point with Tahlia Kokkinis of Australia serving at 6-5 in the second set before rebounding to earn a 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 victory. Newman, who had lost to Kokkinis in three sets in the ITF J500 in Milan this spring, played the US Open junior qualifying last year, but did not make it to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center until this year. On Monday, she also came from a set down, beating Kali Supova of Slovakia 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Andrew Johnson, who turned 16 ten days ago, beat No. 3 seed Yannick Alexandrescou on Sunday from a set down; today, he was facing fellow wild card Matisse Farzam on Grandstand, and although the DJ may have intruded on his concentration, he managed to post a 6-4, 7-5 win.

Up 4-1 serving in the first set, Johnson was unaccustomed to all the distractions that come with competing on a big court at the US Open.

"I maybe lost a little bit of focus," Johnson said. "At 4-1 on the bench, the music was going and I was jamming, trying to have fun, stay loose. I'm not sure if that had something to do with it, but maybe I got too loose. I'm going to discuss it with my coaches later, but I definitely don't want to do that again."

After Johnson dropped his serve at 4-all in the second set, Farzam served for the set, and had a set point, but Johnson saved it, converted his third break point, held and broke again for the win.

Johnson took a tough loss in the Kalamazoo 16s final, falling to Marcel Latak after leading 5-1 in the third set, but he has made progress in coping with that disappointment.

"It will always be back there, it was heart-breaking, 5-1 in the third," Johnson said. "It's something you've got to move past and I'll have many more opportunities in the future. Maybe it lit a little fire in me, I think it did. Just keep going forward, don't play anything loose, keep the foot on the pedal."

Johnson's opponent in the third round is another American, No. 15 seed Ronit Karki, who beat Ludvig Hede of Sweden 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. They have never played, with Karki nearly two years older, but Johnson will need to earn another unexpected victory to reach his goal.

"It's pretty much a dream, you know?" Johnson said. "One of my goals for this tournament is to get to the quarters. It's a personal goal, and anything can happen, but it's definitely the goal I want to get to."

While Johnson was playing on Grandstand, No. 9 seed Jack Kennedy was competing on Louis Armstrong Stadium, a special experience for the 17-year-old from Long Island. He was challenged by unseeded Flynn Thomas of Switzerland, but took control in the third set for a 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 victory.

"It was unbelievable," said Kennedy, who lost in the first round in his US Open debut last year. "Walking out on the court this morning for warmups, the stadium's huge, a top five stadium in our sport. But walking out on the court, I felt like I belonged there. I think hitting on Ashe last year helped me. I felt like I was playing well and was happy with how I handled the moment. A lot of people, when they play on a bigger court, they tend to drop back and not play their game, so I'm happy I continued to keep playing my game."

Kennedy will face unseeded 16-year-old Luis Guto Miguel of Brazil, last week's ITF J300 champion in Canada, who ended the run of qualifier Simon Caldwell 6-4, 6-2. That too will be a first time meeting, with Kennedy, who reached the junior slam level last year at 16, now at the stage of facing players younger than he is.

While Kennedy was playing on a big stage in his home country's slam for the first time, Great Britain's Hannah Klugman, who followed him on Armstrong, is a veteran of that particular  circumstance. 

Last year, at age 15, Klugman reached the final round of Wimbledon's women's qualifying, losing to Alycia Parks. This year she received a main draw wild card, with Leylah Fernandez beating her in the first round.

The No. 2 seed this tournament, Klugman knows she's the hunted not the hunter in junior events, but she managed to deal with the pressure of that, and loss of the first set, to defeat fellow 16-year-old Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi of India 6-7(1), 6-4, 6-3.

One of the major improvements Klugman sees in her game now compared to a year ago, is an ability to win ugly, as she did today, although the third set was at a much higher level than the first two.

"I was struggling to get through matches not playing well," said Klugman, the Roland Garros girls finalist this year. "Like today, I wasn't playing well, but I found a way to win, and to have that attribute is massive. I couldn't accept playing badly, and if I played badly, I'd lose. I couldn't find a way to win, but now I'm finding ways."

Klugman will play unseeded Julie Pastikova of the Czech Republic, who beat No. 16 seed Thea Frodin 6-2, 6-1 today on Grandstand.

Tuesday's second round junior singles results of Americans:

Jack Kennedy[9] d. Flynn Thomas(SUI) 6-2, 1-6, 6-3

Andrew Johnson[WC] d. Matisse Farzam[WC] 6-4, 7-5 

Jan Kumstat(CZE) d. Gavin Goode[SE] 6-2, 6-4

Alexander Vasilev[5](BUL) d. Dominick Mosejczuk 6-3, 6-2

Ronit Karki[15] d. Ludvig Hede(SWE) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4

Luis Guto Miguel(BRA) d. Simon Caldwell[Q] 6-4, 6-2 

Ivan Ivanov[1](BUL) d. Maxwell Exsted 6-2, 6-3

Julie Pastikova(CZE) d. Thea Frodin[16] 6-2, 6-1

Ksenia Efremova(FRA) d. Janae Preston[WC] 6-3, 6-1 

Welles Newman[WC] d. Tahlia Kokkinis(AUS) 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4

Jana Kovackova[6](CZE) d. Nancy Lee[WC] 6-2, 6-2

Wednesday's third round junior singles matches featuring Americans:

Jack Kennedy[9] v Luis Guto Miguel(BRA)

Ronit Karki[15] v Andrew Johnson[WC]

Maximus Dussault v Ivan Ivanov[1](BUL)

Julieta Pareja[1] v Lea Nilsson[Q](SWE)

Kristina Penickova[3] v Jeline Vandromme[14](BEL)

Welles Newman[WC] v Julia Stusek[5](GER)

The first round of junior doubles was completed today with two big upsets. The biggest was undoubtedly the loss of Roland Garros and Wimbledon champions and No. 4 seeds Oskari Paldanius of Finland and Alan Wazny of Poland, who lost to American alternates Nischal Spurling and Ford McCollum 7-6(11), 6-4.

Thilo Behrmann of Austria, who retired from his first round singles match Sunday, playing with Flynn Thomas, pulled out of doubles, and with Spurling and McCollum the only team to sign in as alternates, they got their opportunity. (Jack Satterfield and Ronit Karki won by walkover from Luis Miguel and Andres Santamarta Roig, the No. 5 seeds, with no other alternates available). A late break in the second set gave Spurling the opportunity to end Wazny and Paldanius' ten match junior slam winning streak and he hit four first serves to assist in closing out the upset with a love hold.

Top seeds Yannick Alexandrescou of Romania and Ryo Tabata of Japan lost to Karim Bennani of Morocco and William Rejchtman Vinciguerra of Sweden 7-6(4), 6-7(5), 10-8.

While the boys Roland Garros champions are out, the girls doubles winners in Paris are through to the second round, with unseeded Eva Bennemann and Sonja Zhenikhova of Germany beating No. 8 seeds Ksenia Efremova of France and Elizara Yaneva of Bulgari 6-2, 6-2.

2024 NCAA spring doubles champions Robert Cash and JJ Tracy advanced to their first major men's doubles quarterfinal tonight, on a bigger court and with much less drama than their 6-7(4), 7-6(2), 7-6(8) second round Labor Day win over No. 7 seeds Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori of Italy on the Grandstand.

In Louis Armstrong Stadium, the former Ohio State stars defeating No. 10 seeds Maximo Gonzalez and Andrea Molteni of Argentina 6-3, 6-3. They will face No. 15 seeds Sadio Doumbia(Georgia) and Fabien Reboul of France in Wednesday's quarterfinals.

No. 4 seed Jessica Pegula advanced to the US Open women's singles semifinals with 6-3, 6-3 win over Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic. 

No. 8 seed Amanda Anisimova will face No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland in a rematch of the Wimbledon final on Ashe Wednesday afternoon.