©Colette Lewis 2026--
Kalamazoo MI--
History is part of the charm of Kalamazoo, but due to yet another wet day, and an unfortunate retirement, the 83rd edition of the
USTA Boys 18s and 16s National Championships produced some unwanted firsts and rare disappointments Sunday.
After a more than three-hour delay due to morning storms, the 16s and 18s finals were scheduled to be played at the same time, a first in my 25 years of covering the tournament.
Although the crowd was surprisingly large given the rain and the smothering humidity that followed, its attention was divided between Courts 2 and 3, with George Acker Center Court unused for the first time ever for the 18s final.
But it wasn't long before the 16s final was alone in the spotlight, with No. 6 seed and Wimbledon boys champion Jordan Lee retiring with top seed Jack Kennedy leading 2-1 in the opening set.
The match began with Kennedy breaking Lee, then Lee getting the break back in the next game. With a best-of-five format for the boys 18s final, there was plenty of time to shake off their nerves and play the quality tennis they had displayed all week, but Lee was broken in the next game and asked for a medical timeout at the changeover. The tournament's medical staff and tournament referee Scott Elbin attended to Lee, but after a few minutes, the chair umpire announced that Lee was retiring. He gestured to his chest when he approached the net to shake hands with Kennedy and went to the trainers room beneath the Tower for more evaluations.
"It's my chest," the 16-year-old from Orlando told me after the match. "I don't think it's a muscle, so I'm not sure what it is. My heartbeat's normal, my lungs are fine; I seriously don't know if it was nerves, something I ate, I'm not sure. I prepared myself very well, especially over the last couple of months, but today, something happened that was out of my control, but I'm very happy with this week. Last year I wasn't here at this tournament, wasn't even starting to play yet (after an injury), so it's only positives."
Lee still intends to play the US Open men's qualifying tournament with the wild card he earned for making the 18s final.
"I'll just go back home, rest a bit," said Lee, who was on court for less than an hour in his semifinal match Saturday. "New York starts in a week, so I have five or six days."
Kennedy, who had lost to Matt Forbes in four sets in the 18s final in 2024, was subdued, rather than elated after succeeding in his third and final attempt at the US Open main draw wild card.
"It's definitely mixed emotions right now," said the 18-year-old from Huntington New York. "I'm still just really upset with how this match turned out to be. We were both looking forward to it, a lot of people were looking forward to it. We were texting each other, 'let's have some fun tomorrow, and whatever happens, happens' all that, so for this to happen, it's really sad. This is not the way anyone wants to win, especially this tournament, three out of five. We wanted to enjoy the battle together, leave blood, sweat and tears on the court. I'm just super bummed for Jordan."
The other side of the coin is his eagerness to test his game in the main draw of the US Open in two weeks time.
"We're in main draw, and that's also a really exciting feeling," said Kennedy, who lost in the first round of men's qualifying the past two years. "It's my backyard tournament, a tournament I've been going to since I was five years old, and it's really cool to play on the biggest stages with the biggest names out there, giving myself a chance to do a little bit of damage there."
Kennedy says his success at the Challenger level this spring and summer has helped prepare him for what's ahead in New York.
"I think it's helped in a lot of different ways," said Kennedy, whose current ATP ranking is 392. "Mentally, with my confidence, stepping on the court knowing I can hang in there with the best of the best players. My game is ready, it's the physicality it's the part everyone has to adapt and adjust to. But in this tournament I know now that my game's ready and my physicality has been ready for this, so now I just need to go out and prove it. It's the experience, getting used to it, doing it over and over again, and this is the moment where it counts."
Kennedy is not interested in facing one of the top players in his slam debut.
"Maybe not first round, maybe second round if we can get to that point," said Kennedy, who is coached by Greg Lumpkin at Robbie Wagner Tournament Training. "The bigger names, I hope that doesn't happen, but at the same time, it would be cool to have that experience. But whoever I play, I think it's going to be a really special opportunity to witness and experience it. I don't have a name in mind, but whoever it is, we're going to have fun, take it all in and enjoy the heck out of it."
This is the first 18s final without a match point played since 2006, when Jesse Levine was unable to face Donald Young for the title due to food poisoning.
The abrupt end to the 18s final simplified things for the crowd, who may have recognized top seed Kamil Stolarczyk and No. 6 seed Daniel Malacek from their championship performance in the doubles final on Saturday.
Roommates all week, the pair warmed up together on the indoor courts at Kalamazoo College before the match, before Stolarczyk, took the second USTA gold ball of the 16s tournament with a 6-4, 6-2 victory.
Stolarczyk trailed 4-2 in the opening set, and the 16-year-old from Glendale New York was not pleased with his level.
"I came out a little groggy in the first set," said Stolarczyk, who did not blame his slow start on the three-hour plus delay in the start of the match. "But my (left) arm was killing me, from the doubles semifinals, and I told Daniel he would have to carry me at least that day, because my arm was shot. I kind of had to rely on my forehand, because I had no backhand."
After getting the break back and winning a deuce game to level the first set at 4-all, Stolarczyk didn't get discouraged when he couldn't convert his two break points with Malacek serving at 15-40, and got the break on his next opportunity.
"He played a great game at 3-4," said the 16-year-old Malacek, coached by Mitch Stewart, who reached the Kalamazoo 16s semifinals in 2012. "And I could tell from the way he was playing he kind of loosened up, and it started snowballing. He started playing better and better, hit a little closer to the lines. He played amazing; big congrats to him."
Stolarczyk had three aces and no double faults in the match, but that doesn't tell the story of the impact of that shot, especially in the tenth game, when he saved a break point with an ace and closed out the set.
"It's a big thing that I worked on with Marcel," Stolarczyk said of his now former coach Marcel du Coudray at Robbie Wagner Tournament Training, who is currently coaching a WTA player. "Even when I'm not playing good, I can rely on my serve now and it's been great this last few months. We were working on the serve a lot and it's great to see it come out in pressure moments."
Stolarczyk had two aces serving at 2-1 in the second set and saved a break point serving at 3-2. Malacek came from 0-40 down in his 2-4 service game, but the left-hander, who had not dropped a set in advancing to the final, couldn't save a fourth break point.
Stolarczyk has been known to struggle closing out matches and this week had a 5-1 lead in the second set in the third round against Andres Quijada before winning it 7-5, so serving out the Kalamazoo 16s championship wasn't exactly automatic.
"I was a little surprised, honestly," Stolarczyk said of the relatively drama-free finish, with Malacek failing to return a second serve at 40-30. "I hit two good first serves in that game, and that really helped me a lot and I only needed two more to win."
Before this event Stolarczyk had never played in a USTA Level 1 match with a gold, silver or bronze ball at stake.
But this weekend he left with both gold balls, the first 16s player to sweep the events since John McNally in 2014, and is now looking forward to playing in the main draw of the US Open Junior Championships as a wild card.
"This has been the dream for me since I was seven, going out every year to to watch and then finally get to play is unbelievable for me," said Stolarczyk, who lives 15 minutes from the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. "This was literally the dream, for me and my dad, not just me. We've been literally thinking about this, thinking about to how to get here for years and years. So it's great."
For the first time in tournament history, the 16s and 18s singles champions received guitars from the Kalamazoo-based Heritage Guitar company in addition to their USTA gold balls. Although neither play now, Stolarczyk will add it to the guitar he bought as a room decoration, while Kennedy is considering lending his guitar to his friend and doubles partner Keaton Hance, a guitarist in a band with Kennedy, who said he contributes only as a vocalist.
Thea Frodin, who won the 18s doubles title last year at the
USTA Girls National Championships, will compete in the main draw of women's singles this year, after breezing past Janae Preston 6-1, 6-0 in less than an hour in the 18s singles championship. See the recap of today's 18s finals from Steve Pratt for USTA Southern California below:
NO. 3 THEA FRODIN WINS USTA BILLIE JEAN KING
GIRLS’ 18s NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP WITH 6-1, 6-0,
FINALS VICTORY OVER NO. 4 JANAE PRESTON
SAN DIEGO – (Aug. 16, 2026) – Moments after Thea Frodin captured the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s National Championships in singles, beating Janae Preston, 6-1, 6-0, on Sunday at the Barnes Tennis Center, she was asked the question every winner gets each year:
“Now that you’re headed to New York with a main draw US Open singles wild card, would you rather face a high seed on Arthur Ashe Stadium? Or a qualifier on a back court in the first round?”
Frodin, from Woodland Hills in Southern California, took a few seconds to think about it, before answering: “I’m going with seeded player on Arthur Ashe. I want it all. Bring it on!”
The No. 3 seeded Frodin’s play impressed more than 30 former WTA legends of the game, who were introduced on court before the match. Tennis icons such as 39-time majors winner King, 12-time Grand Slam champion Rosie Casals, and San Diego native Karen Hantze Susman, who won the 18s girls’ singles nationals title three straight times in 1958, 1959 and 1960 before going on to win Wimbledon singles in 1962 and three more majors with Billie Jean Moffitt, were part of the cavalcade of stars.
The 17-year-old Frodin’s USTA singles gold ball from Girls’ 18s Nationals will proudly be displayed next to the doubles she won last year. Frodin joins fellow Southern Californians Iva Jovic, Lindsay Davenport and Tracy Austin, who all won both the singles and doubles at Girls’ 18s Nationals
“Honestly, it’s all a blur,” said Frodin, who beat top-seeded Julieta Pareja in the semifinals on Saturday in two tiebreaks. “I just really wanted it and was super excited to play. Yesterday, after I beat the No. 1 seed, it really boosted my confidence.”
Preston, the No. 4 seed from Henderson, Nev., knew it was going to be a long day from the outset. “I tried to fight through it mentally,” said Preston, 16, who won a three-hour marathon three-setter on Saturday and had another three-set win on Friday. “It was a long week, and she played really well.”
In the girls’ 18s doubles final, Bella Payne of Hilton Head Island, S.C., and Sara Shumate of Charlotte, N.C., beat Welles Newman from Boca Raton, Fla., and Jordyn Hazelitt from Henderson, Nev., 6-2, 6-1. Payne (headed to the University of Georgia) and Shumate (Oklahoma) are next off to the US Open, just like Frodin, winning main draw wild cards into the women’s doubles draw.
Julieta Pareja of Carlsbad won the third-fourth match against Chukwumelije Clarke from Humble, Texas, 6-1, 6-3.
“It was a great tournament all week, and we extend our appreciation to Ryan Redondo, the Barnes Tennis and the Southern California Tennis Association,” said tournament director Lornie Kuhle. “Today was highlighted by our ‘Summer of Champions’ and the reunion of past WTA greats. We wish our winner Thea Frodin the best of luck, and she was also the 18s Sportsmanship award winner. We have a pretty good track record at producing champions and we think that is going to continue with Teah.”
For more information, visit the official tournament website at ustagirlsnationals.com.
