2022 Champions Move into Round of 16 at USTA Boys 18s National Championships; Top Seeds Roll on in Doubles

©Colette Lewis 2023--
Kalamazoo MI--

The 2022 champions continued their winning ways in Kalamazoo Tuesday, with last year's 16s champion Darwin Blanch and last year's 18s champion Learner Tien earning straight-sets victories over familiar opponents at Kalamazoo College's Stowe Stadium.

Blanch, seeded No. 6 in the 18s based on his ITF junior ranking of No. 9,  defeated wild card Calvin Baierl, a No. 33 seed, 7-6(5), 6-2 in a rematch of the 2022 Kalamazoo 16s final, although the sunny and warm weather was a decided change from that previous contest. Blanch, who had beaten Baierl 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 for the title after going from outdoors inside due to rain, noted the improvements Baierl had made in his game since then.

"He's more aggressive now, and he's hitting his forehand a lot better than last year," said the 15-year-old left-hander. "That's something he's improved a lot. His first serves are also pretty good."

Blanch, who has never lost a match at Kalamazoo, was up 4-1 in the first set, but he let disagreement over a line call break his concentration and he found himself in a tiebreaker before recovering for a 7-6(5), 6-2 victory.

"I saw serving at 4-2 and in the first point of the game, I hit a forehand, and it was in," Blanch said. "The ref said it was out, and we had a little discussion there. That affected me a bit, and I gave him free points there and he ended up breaking me. That was bad from me, letting that call affect me, I should just think about the next point."

By the second set, Blanch had put that behind him and raised his level. 

"In the first set, I didn't play my best tennis at all," said Blanch, who trains at Juan Carlos Ferrero's academy in Spain. "I wasn't playing my game, I was just kind of like making balls, and that's not how I play. But in the second set, I started playing much more aggressive, hitting the ball harder and coming in more, and that definitely helped, as the score showed."

Blanch is not playing doubles again this year, after skipping it in 2022, but he said it's not because he's superstitious. 

"It's just a lot of matches and with the draw so big, we decided just to focus on singles and leave it all out there," said Blanch, who reached the semifinals of both the Roland Garros and Wimbledon Junior Championships this summer.

Blanch's opponent in Wednesday's round of 16 will be a fellow 16s champion: Alexander Razeghi, who won the Kalamazoo title in 2021. Razeghi, the No. 13 seed, defeated No. 31 seed Stiles Brockett 6-2, 7-5.

Tien, the top seed, avenged his loss to the last player to beat him in Kalamazoo, Meecah Bigun, a No. 33 seed. In 2021, Tien was seeded No. 3 in the 16s, Bigun No. 30, and when they met in the round of 16, it was Bigun who came away with a 7-5, 6-3 victory. Tien went on to win the feed-in consolation tournament to finish in fifth place and then won seven matches last year to take the 18s title.

In today's match, Tien got off to a slow start before hitting his stride in a 6-2, 6-0 victory. Tien said he's has been trying to figure out why he is not sharp from the outset.

"I've talked to my coaches a little bit about that today," said the 17-year-old left-hander from Irvine California. "It's something I'm obviously not trying to do. But it's taking a couple of games to get in that zone where I'm really there for every point. But it's definitely something I'm trying to get better at."

Tien, who announced this summer that he would be turning pro and not returning to USC for his sophomore season, said that despite his title here last year, the circumstances are new to him.

"This is the first tournament I've ever come back to play in the same age group," Tien said. "So it definitely feels different from any other tournament. I have fresh memories of winning here, but I try not to think about last year as much; it's a new year, a new tournament, different players."

One player who competed in Kalamazoo last year, but turns 19 this month so is not eligible this year, is Alex Michelsen, who has gone from losing to finalist Ethan Quinn in the quarterfinals here to 137 in the current ATP rankings. Tien has trained with Michelsen for several years at Tier 1 Tennis and despite his rapid rise, Tien said he thought Michelsen's success was overdue.

"I was expecting it a bit sooner," Tien said of Michelsen's recent decision to turn pro, which was announced this week. "I thought it was inevitable. From his results from the beginning of the year, just the upper trend, and now. to be on the brink of the main draw of grand slams."

Tien said their schedules haven't meshed much this year, so they haven't trained together as they did as juniors.

"I've been pretty this whole year actually," said Tien. "I've hit with him a few times right after I finished school (his semester this spring at USC). I went to French, and then I had one or two weeks off and he was playing something. Our schedules have really aligned but whenever schedules allow we hit."

Tien is not putting any pressure on himself to make similar strides as he embarks on his pro career.

"It's cool to see, for sure," Tien said. "But I guess I haven't looked that far down the road. I kind of just started, but yeah, it's very cool to see someone make that quick of a jump."

Tien will face Clay Court champion Zhengqing Ji, the No. 12 seed, who survived a three-and-a-half hour battle with No. 17 seed Matthew Forbes before coming away with a 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-4 win.

No. 2 seed Nishesh Basavareddy and No. 4 seed Aidan Kim both came through in straight sets, with Basavareddy beating unseeded Nathan Pitts 6-0, 6-1 and Kim defeating No. 18 seed Petro Kuzmenok, a rising freshman at Rice, 6-3, 6-3.  No. 3 seed Kyle Kang found himself in a battle with unseeded Gabe Avram, but the Stanford rising freshman rebounded from a rough second set to post a 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 victory.

The 16s did not play main draw singles today, but they will be back in action on Wednesday for their fourth round, while the 18s will play their round of 16 matches. 

Both divisions played their third round of doubles this evening, with all the top seeds advancing to Wednesday's round of 16. 

Top seeds Tien and Cooper Williams, the Australian Open boys doubles champions, defeated Jonathan Irwanto and Adam Bojkovic 6-2, 6-2, while No. 2 seeds Nicholas Godsick and Kim came from a break down in the second set to beat Evan Burnett and Krish Gupta 6-1, 6-4.

In the 16s, top seeds Maxwell Exsted and Cooper Woestendick defeated Liam Alvarez and Arnav Bhandari 6-2, 6-0, while No. 2 seeds Jagger Leach and Joseph Oyebong got a walkover due to injury.

Complete draws can be found at the USTA tournament site.

Live streaming, at Stowe only, is available via a link at ustaboys.com.  Live scoring, at Stowe only, is available via ioncourt.com.