Top Four Seeds Advance to Kalamazoo 16s Semifinals Friday; 18s Quarterfinals, Doubles Semis Also Friday; Pareja Reaches 18s Quarterfinals in San Diego, 12s, 14s, 16s Semifinals; Shelton Defends Title in Montreal; Wolf, Lee Win USO Wild Card Race
©Colette Lewis 2026--
Kalamazoo MI--
The top four seeds in the 16s division of the USTA Boys National Championships have all reached the semifinals, and while that is a new experience for them, the tournament will also be exploring new territory, with those semifinals being played Friday due expected rain on Saturdya.
No. 1 seed Kamil Stolarczyk and No. 3 seed Daniel Malacek kicked off the action on another overcast and humid day, and both came through comfortably with plenty of rest time before their doubles quarterfinal later in the afternoon.
Stolarczyk, who had a three-hour 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-2 win over No. 21 seed Aayush Vartak in the fourth round, has been much more efficient the past two days, and today took care of 15-year-old Tristan Ascenzo 6-2, 6-1.
Malacek defeated No. 20 seed Joshua Dolinsky 6-3, 6-2, and after a rough go of it in his first Kalamazoo in 2025, the 16-year-old left-hander developed a new strategy for this year.
"I had a tough first round, I think I lost 6-4, or 7-5 in the third," said the Kirkland Washington resident. "I grinded out some back draw matches, played through the injury for a few, and after four or five I had to call it. I got some matches in but not the best experience for me."
After reaching the Orange Bowl 16s final in December, Malacek focused on the World Tennis junior circuit, and with a Top 200 ranking and the benefit of the No. 3 seed, he recognized the importance of avoiding lengthy matches.
"It's a huge draw here, and when you're here, you've got to be locked in on the court," Malacek said. "It's match efficiency a lot of the time; it's very humid and once you play a long three-setter, you're not going to recover for the next day. So I practiced with a little extra focus before I came here."
Malacek has not dropped a set in his five matches, but that hasn't translated into less wear and tear on his shoes, and he had to resort to wearing a white shoe and a black shoe in his quarterfinal today.
"I've been going through shoes like crazy, Malacek said. "I came here with three pairs, two white and one black. This is shoe number one," Malacek said, pointing to his white shoe, "and this is shoe number three. My left shoe wears out so much faster, and I don't really know why--my dad thinks it's my serve--but I've gone through three pairs in six days."
Malacek will face No. 2 seed Sulamain Syed, who also hasn't dropped a set, although he had to overcome a 4-0 deficit in the second set to get past No. 22 seed Lennart Hammargren 6-4, 6-4.
"I've never played Sully before," Malacek said. "So that would be a fun first-time experience here, in a big match."
Stolarczyk's semifinal opponent will be No. 4 seed Tristan Stratton, who kept calm after dropping a quick first set to No. 33 seed Carter Jauffret and went on to post a 1-6, 6-4, 6-0 victory.
"I was a little nervous, because there were a lot of people watching," said the 16-year-old from New York. "He's been playing really great the entire tournament and has had a couple of good wins, coming back from an injury. But I had a slow start and he really took advantage of that."
Stratton broke Jauffret three consecutive times in the second set, but couldn't consolidate any of them, so when Jauffret finally held for 4-all, the urgency of a hold increased.
"At 4-4, I was like, I need to hold serve here," Stratton said. "And I managed some kick serves to the backhand, focused and got it done."
Stratton, who said he prefers hard courts, won the USTA National 18s Clay Court Championships last month, so playing the 16s here changes the dynamic for him.
"Going down to the 16s is a little bit of pressure," Stratton said. "But I have so much confidence now, winning my first gold ball, and being able to take that to my next tournament. I'm playing great, so that's all that matters, really."
Although Stolarczyk and Stratton train at different academies in New York, with Stolarczyk at Robbie Wagner's and Stratton at John McEnroe's, they a long history in USTA Eastern sectional tennis.
"I know him very well, we've played a bunch, a lot when we were younger," Stratton said. "I've known him for a while. We're good friends. He's gotten so much better in the past year, so it's going to be a really tough match, but I look forward to it."
The 18s doubles quarterfinals followed the 16s singles quarterfinals, with the top 3 seeds and the No. 8 seeds advancing to Friday's semifinals.
2025 US Open boys doubles champions and No. 1 seeds Jack Kennedy and Keaton Hance defeated unseeded Riley Anson and Andre Alcantara 6-2, 6-4 and will play No. 3 seeds Gavin Goode and Ryan Cozad, who beat No. 7 seeds William McEwan and Wesley Cotton 6-3, 6-1.
No. 2 seeds Yannik Alvarez and and Noah Johnston beat unseeded Mason Taube and Jacob Lee 6-1, 6-1 and will play No. 8 seeds Jack Secord and Ford McCollum, who defeated unseeded Nikolas Stoot and Tyler Lee 6-2, 6-4.
The 16s doubles quarterfinals were considerably more dramatic, with three of them decided in match tiebreakers.
No. 2 seeds Malacek and Stolarczyk cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 win over unseeded David Beckles and Ethan Valdez, but No. 3 seeds
Zesen Wang and Rafael Pawar lost to No. 10 seeds Louden Muha and Mason Fekete 6-2, 2-6, 11-9.
The other two quarterfinals that went to match tiebreakers had to finished indoors, with both in the match tiebreaker when another brief afternoon rain shower paused play.
Top seeds Mikaeel Alibaig and Ivan Rybak defeated No. 5 seeds Alexander Lerman and Aryan Ponugoti 1-6, 6-4, 10-3 and No. 9 seeds Griffin Goode and Kahven Singh defeated No. 15 seeds Jacob Harrelson and Ethan Hu 5-7, 6-1, 10-3.
The 16s singles semifinals are at 9 a.m., with the 18s quarterfinals times as follows. Rain is currently not expected for Friday.
B18s quarterfinals:
Keaton Hance[4] v Jack Secord[9] not before 10 a.m.
Vihaan Reddy[12] v Andrew Johnson[3] not before 10:30 a.m.
Jack Kennedy[1] v Ryan Cozad[10] not before 11:30 a.m.
Jordan Lee[6] v Michael Antonius[2] not before noon
The quarterfinals of the San Diego girls 18s is below, along with the semifinals Friday in the 12s, 14s and G16s. Click on the headings for full draws.
Julieta Pareja[1] v Jordyn Hazelitt[8]
Thea Frodin[3] v Alexis Nguyen[9]
Annika Penickova[33] v Janae Preston[4]
Melije Clarke[33] v Thara Gowda[16
Shristi Selvan[1] v Avita Beitler[6]
Aarini Bhattacharya[14] v Nikol Davletshina[2]
Victoria Park[16] v Daniella Yogumyan[4]
Jessie Janiak[3] v Gabrielle Villegas[2]
Lailah Cowgill[10] v Mandy Wei[13]
Reya Mahadoo[5] v Vlada Hranchar
William Zhou[1] v Zachary Burunov[6]
Thomas Gamble[4] v Aleksander Denisov[7]
Krish Advani[1] v Matthew Finn[3]
Daksh Bharadwaj[12] v David Bender[7]
At the ATP Masters 1000 in Montreal, Ben Shelton(Florida) defended his title, defeating Brandon Nakashima(Virginia) 6-3, 7-6(4). Shelton retakes the position of No. 1 American, moving to No. 6 in the rankings, while Nakashima moves to a career-high of 22 after his first Masters final. For more on the final, see this article from the ATP.
The USTA announced the winners of its annual US Open Wild Card Challenge in a press release today:
J.J. Wolf and Carol Young Suh Lee Clinch US Open Wild Card Challenges
ORLANDO, Fla., August 13, 2026 – J.J. Wolf and Carol Young Suh Lee have clinched main draw singles wild cards into the 2026 US Open after winning the men’s and women’s US Open Wild Card Challenges.
Lee, 24, clinched the top spot in the Challenge last week by qualifying and winning the WTA 125 in Warsaw, Poland. Her strong finish in the final two weeks of the four-week Challenge – which included qualifying and reaching the second round of the WTA 250 in Prague – put her at the top of the race, while Caroline Dolehide finished second, with 122 points, and Elvina Kalieva finished third, with 120 points.
Wolf, 27, clinched the men’s wild card this week, when second-place Andres Martin was eliminated from the USTA Pro Circuit ATP Challenger 75 in Brownsburg, Ind. Wolf, who has twice reached the third round of the US Open and was ranked inside the Top 40 as recently as 2023, banked 125 points from winning the ATP Challenger 125 in Vancouver, for his first Challenger-level title since 2021.
The top of the standings after Week 4 are below. The final men’s standings will publish next week.
Women's Standings
(Player's current ranking in parentheses)
1. Carol Young Suh Lee (165) -- 174
2. Caroline Dolehide (256) -- 122
3. Elvina Kalieva (121) -- 120
Men's Standings
(Player's current ranking in parentheses)
1. J.J. Wolf (282) -- 147
2. Andres Martin (340) -- 73
3. Michael Zheng (113) -- 60
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