Stolarczyk Prevents Repeat of Tucson Collapse, Ousts No. 5 Seed, Lucky Loser Krishnakumar Rolls Past No. 12 Seed to Reach San Diego J300 Third Round; Second Seed Hazelitt Saves Two Match Points to Advance; Antonius Faces Bigun at Bakersfield M25

©Colette Lewis 2026--

San Diego CA--

Record heat in usually temperate San Diego contributed to lengthy matches Tuesday, with a number of three-hour plus contests as the seeded players took to the Barnes Tennis Center courts for the first time at the ITF J300 North American Regional Championships. 

In contrast to last week's second round at the J300 in Tucson, most of the seeds did survive those battles, although five boys seeds and four girls seeds were eliminated.

The highest of those departing seeds was No. 5 Xavier Massotte of Canada, who lost in to Kamil Stolarczyk 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in one of those three-hour plus matches.

Stolarczyk was up 5-2 in the third set, but couldn't serve it out, a scenario that harkened back to his second round match in Tucson against Safir Azam, when he let a 5-1 lead in the third set slip away, losing six straight games to the No. 7 seed. It didn't help his mood to see Azam on the sidelines of his match today.

"It was kind of tough because Safir said 'he's going to choke this again' and it really got into my head a little bit," said the 16-year-old from New York. "I told him kindly to stop talking, got a point penalty, but then I clutched up and served well to close it out."

After dropping the opening set, Stolarczyk made adjustments to his approach. 

"I started putting more toss in my balls for sure, started going for less, but keeping the same pace," Stolarczyk said. "I knew either I was going to win or was going to lose horribly, because I was playing pretty bad in the first set, but I started play much better."

In the final game, Stolarczyk held at love, with little to suggest the trauma of Tucson was on his mind.

"I felt comfortable going into that game, honestly," said Stolarczyk, who trains with Robbie Wagner at Wagner's academy on Long Island. "I felt pretty loose, because on the changeovers, I rested my legs, which were pretty tight from 5-2 onwards. But I served well, started going for a higher percentage on the first serve so he couldn't attack as much and that really helped me pull through."

Stolarczyk will face No. 9 seed Marcel Latak, who defeated Gabriel Jessup 7-6(4), 6-2. Stolarczyk and Latak have their Polish heritage in common.

"We're both Polish, and it's going to be a great match," said Stolarczyk, who speaks fluent Polish with his parents immigrating here, although he was born in the United States.

Teodor Davidov needed more than three hours to defeat No. 6 seed Vihaan Reddy 7-6(2), 2-6, 6-3, but he moves into the round of 16 Wednesday against wild card David Wu of San Diego. Wu, a Harvard recruit, beat No. 10 seed Dani Szabo of Canada 6-1, 6-3, but that scoreline does not begin to suggest the battle it was, with 20-stroke rallies the norm, with the 16 games taking 140 minutes to play.

Top seed Andrew Johnson extended his winning streak to six games, but the Tucson J300 champion needed a comeback to defeated Canadian left-hander Felix Roussel 4-6, 6-1, 6-1. Johnson will face No. 15 seed Izyan Ahmad in a rematch of the 2024 Easter Bowl 14s final, won by Johnson 6-0, 6-2. Ahmad defeated wild card Colter Amey, 6-3, 6-3 today.

The match that had might have set a record for length was cut short today when No. 16 seed Jerrid Gaines Jr. retired with an illness against Gurjot Singh, who led 6-7(13), 6-4, 2-1 when Gaines called for the trainer and did not continue. The first set took 95 minutes to play and was nearing the three-hour mark when Gaines retired.  Singh will face Tucson finalist and No. 3 seed Ryan Cozad, who beat qualifier Loic Massotte of Canada 6-2, 6-4.

Bucking the day's trend, the fifth seed to fall went out in a hurry, with lucky loser Yashwin Krishnakumar beating No. 12 seed Joshua Adamson of Canada 6-1, 6-2.  But Krishnakumar was hardly fresh, having needed over three hours to win his first round match over Orange Bowl 16s champion Matias Reyniak 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. 

Krishnakumar had less than 30 minutes notice Monday after Tyler Lee withdrew with an illness.

"I wasn't expecting to play, but I came here before the 9 a.m. matches and I warmed up," said the 17-year-old from Northern California. "Going to sleep the day before I don't know that I expected to wake up and play a three-hour and 15-minute match."

Krishnakumar hadn't played Adamson, but had received some scouting reports from friends.

"Some people told me before the match that he's a big lefty and he tries to hit the ball pretty hard," Krishnakumar said. "I think I did a good job of keep the ball out of his strike zone and he struggled keeping up in the longer rallies, so I just tried to make every rally as long as possible. And I was holding serve pretty easily, so that gave me confidence too."

Krishnakumar did not play Tucson, opting instead for a UTR Pro Tennis Tour event in Las Vegas as preparation for this week. 

"I'm playing this and I'm playing Easter Bowl right after, so it's kind of back-to-back and I wanted to have a break in between," said Krishnakumar who reached the quarterfinals of the Easter Bowl 18s last year.

Krishnakumar will face No. 7 seed Azam in the third round Wednesday after Azam defeated qualifier Advay Singh 7-5, 6-3.

"I've played Safir a couple of times and every time we play it's pretty close," Krishnakumar said. "He's a good player, so we'll see."

Two girls matches went to third set tiebreakers, with Tucson finalist Allison Wang defeating No. 7 seed Capucine Jauffret for the second time in five days, this time by a score of 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(5).  Wang had beaten Jauffret 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals of Tucson last Friday, but this match was much closer with Jauffret's level much higher than in Tucson. But at down 5-3 in the tiebreaker, Wang came up with the big shots, with a forehand forcing an error to get to match point and closing it out with a backhand winner.

Wang wlll face Aarini Bhattacharya, who beat No. 10 seed Karlin Schock 6-2, 1-6, 6-2. Wang defeated Bhattacharya 6-2, 7-5 in the final of a J60 in Costa Rica back in January.

Second seed Jordyn Hazelitt survived in her first junior match in six weeks, defeating doubles partner Emery Combs 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(7).

Hazelitt, a 15-year-old from Nevada, served for the match at 5-4 in the third and had a match point at 40-30. But Combs crushed a forehand return winner on a second serve to save it, then held and broke to serve for the match herself at 6-5. She lost the game at love, forcing a tiebreaker, but did earn a match point with Hazelitt serving at 5-6. Although the serving was shaky for both girls, Hazelitt came up with a big first serve when she needed it to save that match point.

Combs got another when Hazelitt sent a forehand long for 7-6, but Combs double faulted on her second match point, then missed a volley to give Hazelitt a second match point, which she converted with her backhand forcing an error.

Top seed Nadia Lagaev of Canada defeated wild card Armira Kockinis 6-0, 6-1 and will face Carlota Moreno, who beat No. 15 seed Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann 6-4, 6-3. 

Qualifier Sydney Jalbert defeated No. 13 seed Andrea Cabio of Canada 6-0, 3-6, 6-1.

No. 6 seed Carrie-Anne Hoo survived in a three-hour 15-minute marathon on Stadium court to close out the singles action for the day, beating Reilly Rhodes 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 after Rhodes had served for the match 5-4 in the third.

The third round of singles begins at 9 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time Wednesday, with the quarterfinals of doubles also on the schedule.

The only USTA Pro Circuit tournament this week is an M25 in Bakersfield California.

Qualifying was completed today, with Lucca Liu(UC-Santa Barbara), Christopher Papa(San Diego Christian, Pepperdine),  Alex Kobelt(Ohio State, UNLV), Daniil Kakhniuk(New Mexico), Ryan Haviland(Stanford) and Anju Watane(North Carolina) the Americans through to the main draw.

Wild cards were given to Gus Grumet, the 2024 Kalamazoo 16s champion, Gianluca Brunkow(UC-Santa Barbara), Ron Hohmann(LSU, Michigan State) and 15-year-old Michael Antonius.

Antonius will face 2024 Roland Garros boys champion Kaylan Bigun, the No. 7 seed, in the first round Wednesday.

Daniel Milavsky(Harvard) and Andrew Fenty(Michigan) are the top two seeds.