Svajda Joins Short List of Two-Time Kalamazoo 18s Champions with Win Over Shelton; Razeghi Captures 16s Title in Kalamazoo Debut; Krueger Earns G18s Titles in San Diego

©Colette Lewis 2021--
Kalamazoo MI--

The No. 1 seeds validated their spots at the top of draws at the USTA Boys 16s and 18s National Championships this year. After both the top seeds took doubles titles on Saturday, No. 1 boys 18s seed Zachary Svajda won his second consecutive title with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-1 victory over No. 3 seed Ben Shelton, after No. 1 16s seed Alexander Razeghi had beaten No. 4 seed Lucas Brown 6-2, 6-3 in the day's first final at Stowe Stadium.

The Kalamazoo crowds, hungry for blueberries and cream and more junior tennis after the tournament was canceled last year due to the pandemic, did their best to encourage the underdogs on a partly cloudy and mild afternoon on the campus of Kalamazoo College.

In addition to the local crowd, Shelton had a family cheering section from Indianapolis and Detroit, along with his father Bryan, head coach at the University of Florida. But there was not much they could do to help the Gator sophomore, with Svajda playing at his best, which as he proved in 2019, was plenty good enough.

"I tried to stay focused the whole match, because sometimes I can space out," said Svajda, who turns 19 in November. "Thankfully for this whole tournament, I didn't, and I was pretty solid overall."

Svajda did not lose his concentration, but he did encounter some adversity when Shelton found his game midway through the second set. After trailing 3-1 in the second Shelton put together a string of 11 straight points, breaking Svajda at love and holding at love for 4-all. He then had two break points in Svajda's next service game, but Svajda fought both off, and the opportunity was gone. Shelton had a game point for 5-all but he double faulted three points later and Svajda held easily to take a two-set to none lead in the best of five match.

"I made a pretty good run in the second set, but I played a few big points poorly," said Shelton, who came into Kalamazoo having won the singles and doubles titles at a $25,000 USTA men's Pro Circuit event in Champaign Illinois. "And then there were some of those points where I felt I played a pretty solid point and he kept coming up with stuff, kept making it tough. I played too loose at some moments, didn't play big enough at some moments, so it's just balance I didn't really find today."

Svajda wasn't ready to concede that second set.

"Maybe when I was younger, I would think, ok, get the next set," Svajda said of the prospect of dropping serve for a second straight time. "But as I'm getting more experience, getting older, just playing more, I know it can be any score and I can always come back from it. And he was playing well, hitting some good shots."

Shelton admitted that once he dropped the second set, he struggled to see a path to victory.

"This is my first three out of five match, so I'm not too upset," said Shelton, who will go back to playing best of three in the men's qualifying draw at the US Open with the wild card he receives as the Kalamazoo 18s finalist. "It's a struggle, being down two sets to love and looking at that mountain you have to climb. I did my best to keep fighting, stay in the match, but on the big moments, he came up huge, on break points he came up with winners and applied a lot of pressure, so I've got to give a lot of credit to him today."

Svajda showed how relentless a competitor he can be in the fourth game of the third set. Already up two breaks, Svajda fought off four break points to shut the door on Shelton, who held serve in the next game, but dropped serve for a third time in the set to end the match.

Svajda will now prepare to compete in the main draw of the US Open for the second time, having lost to Paolo Lorenzi of Italy 3-6, 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-2 in the first round in 2019.

"I saw I could be with those guys when I was 16, so now two years of training, getting better, getting stronger, I think I can do well if I play my right game, win some matches," said the San Diego resident, who works with the USTA's David Nainkin in Carson and travels with coach Chase Custer. 

Although he looked impenetrable throughout the week, never losing more than four games in a set, Svajda wants to keep improving.

"I feel like I'm solid all around, but there's definitely some weaknesses in my game," said Svajda, who did miss several volleys when Shelton brought him into the net. "But thankfully, I played pretty well this week."

Svajda will always have one Kalamazoo record to look back on, as he won the 18s title in his Kalamazoo debut in 2019, never having played 16s, and won the title this year in his second attempt to become the only two-time 18s champion in the Open era to go undefeated in Kalamazoo. The others--Phillip King, Paul Goldstein, Donald Young and Jack Sock--all lost a singles match at some previous appearance in Kalamazoo.

While Svajda won the 18s in his Kalamazoo debut in 2019, 16s champion Razeghi started a streak of his own this week in his first trip to Kalamazoo's Stowe Stadium, and an impressive debut it was.

The 15-year-old Texan was so focused that Brown could not gain a foothold at any stage in the match, trailing from the outset as Razeghi displayed flawless tennis and very few nerves considering the glare of the spotlight of a Kalamazoo final. As calm as he looked and as precise as his tennis was, Razeghi admitted to some tossing and turning Saturday night.

"I could barely sleep at night, thinking about what I wanted to do today," said the left-hander from Humble, which is in the Houston area. "The first game, I was a little nervous, but after I got settled and relaxed, I started to go with it."

Razeghi did not face a break point or even a deuce on his serve during the match, while he was constantly applying pressure on Brown's serve. Although there was only one break in the first set, in the second game, Razeghi wasn't challenged until serving for the set at 5-3. At 40-30 he crushed a forehand winner for the set, and when he broke Brown in the first game of the second set after two deuces, Razeghi resumed his dominant mode.

Razeghi plays briskly, and with ballrunners on the court for the first time this year on Sunday, the pace of play was even more accelerated, with Brown struggling to manage it.

"It wasn't so much that I was nervous, but the speed of the match was way more than I was used to," said Brown, a 16-year-old from Plano Texas. "He plays very quickly, the ballkids were grabbing the balls, and I'm someone that does my own cheering most of the time, so to have a crowd cheering after every point, it was difficult for me to get the vamoses going, because they were doing it for me."

Razeghi agreed that the match was played at his pace.

"That's my type of game," said Razeghi, who trains with Jon Glover at the USTA campus in Lake Nona, while traveling with coach Courtney Scott. "I was probably too fast for some of the ballpeople, but I just like playing really fast. Sometimes I can get in a rushing stage, which is not really good, so I've got to keep it in between."

Brown tried to change the pace, but with Razeghi not donating any points he found that an uphill climb.

"He made very few unforced errors, hit very good passing shots," said Brown, who won the doubles title Saturday with Nicholas Godsick. "When I tried to lay back and make him force the issue, he did. The points I won I had to play very, very, very good tennis. The only easy points I won were big first serves. He was just doing a great job tolerating everything."

Although Razeghi prides himself on not giving away points with errors, he does have a weapon in his buggy-whip forehand,  reminiscent of Rafael Nadal's.

"My dad tries to model it like Nadal for sure," said Razeghi, who did not drop a set in his seven matches. "He's obviously a big inspiration for my game, so it's awesome to hear comparisons like that."

Razeghi may even run into his hero next month in New York, now that he's assured himself of a main draw wild card in the US Open Junior Championships.

"It's been a dream of mine to compete in a tournament like that and I can't wait to get out there," said Razeghi, who is the third consecutive left-hander to win the Kalamazoo 16s title, following Martin Damm in 2018 and Alexander Bernard in 2019.

In the feed-in finals today, Learner Tien beat Alexander Aney 6-3, 6-2 to take fifth place in the 16s. Kyle Kang avenged his main draw loss to Ozan Colak in the 18s fifth place match, winning 6-0, 6-1.  Cooper Woestendick took third in the 16s with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over Nikita Filin. Colton Smith took the bronze ball in the 18s when Alexander Bernard withdrew.

At the Girls 18s Nationals in San Diego, No. 6 seed Ashlyn Krueger defeated No. 7 seed Reese Brantmeier 6-2, 7-6(3) to win the singles title and a US Open main draw wild card. Krueger won the Orange Bowl title in December. From the tournament's public relations staff:

SIXTH-SEEDED ASHLYN KRUEGER CROWNED SINGLES & DOUBLES
CHAMPION AT USTA BILLIE JEAN KING GIRLS’ 18s NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Krueger Defeats 7th Seeded Reese Brantmeier 6-2, 7-6 (3) in Girls’ 18s Singles Final

SAN DIEGO – (August 15, 2021) – The final day of the 2021 United States Tennis Association Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s National Championships will be a day sixth-seeded Ashlyn Krueger will never forget.

The 17-year-old from Lewisville, Texas, played inspired tennis for one-hour and 38 minutes on a warm, sunny day at Barnes Tennis Center and outlasted seventh-seeded Reese Brantmeier of Whitewater, Wis., 6-2, 7-6 (3) to win the Girls’ 18s singles title.

After holding serve to open the match before a large crowd on Stadium Court, Krueger broke the 16-year-old Brantmeier at love to take a 2-0 lead. With the momentum in her favor, Krueger scored two additional service breaks and wrapped up the first set in 30 minutes.

In the second set, Brantmeier picked up the level of her game, holding serve and staying even with Krueger. At 4-4, Krueger fended off three break points and held for a 5-4 lead.

Three games later, Brantmeier, serving to stay in the match at 5-6, fought off a match point and eventually held serve to send the second set to a deciding tie-break.
 
Krueger quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the tiebreaker, but Brantmeier mounted a spirited comeback to tie the score at 3-3 as the near-capacity crowd cheered loudly.
 
Any hopes of a third set were quickly extinguished as Krueger won the last four points in a row to close out the match and secure the victory.

After the title match, tennis legend Billie Jean King presented Krueger with a USTA gold ball for winning the national championship. In addition, Krueger will receive a wild card into the Women’s Singles main draw of the upcoming US Open.
 
“I'm just super happy and excited. I'm just ecstatic about the future,” Krueger said. “I just played within myself. She (Brantmeier) played amazing. She served really good. I just had to hang in there.”
 
Later in the afternoon, Krueger captured her second tournament title of the day as she teamed with Robin Montgomery to win the Girls’ 18s doubles championship. The top-seeded duo of Krueger and Montgomery eased past the 11th seeded team of Elvina Kalieva of Delray Beach, Fla., and Elise Wagle of Schenectady, N.Y., 6-0, 6-1 in 51 minutes.

Montgomery and Krueger were awarded a USTA gold ball following their victory. The Girls’ 18s doubles champions will also receive a wild card into the Women’s Doubles main draw at the US Open.