Godsick Rebounds From 4-6, 0-4 to Advance to 18s Fourth Round in Kalamazoo; Cohen Takes Out Clay Court Champion Satterfield in 16s Action; ITF World Junior Tennis Competition Underway in Czech Republic

©Colette Lewis 2023--

Kalamazoo MI--

Trailing unseeded Lathan Skrobarcek 6-4, 4-0, No. 8 seed Nicholas Godsick knew something had to change. Although the 18-year-old from Ohio wasn't happy with his level of play, he decided the most important adjustment he could make was with his attitude, and the end result was a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory in Monday's third round of the USTA Boys 18s National Championships.

"In the first four games of the second set, I had a lapse of concentration, I was really frustrated out there, wasn't playing well, wasn't finding my game," said the rising Stanford freshman. "And I decided, you know what, it's one last junior tournament, let's enjoy it. If I lose 6-0, I lose 6-0, but let's have some fun out here."

Skrobarcek, a rising freshman at Texas A&M, had a game point to go up 5-1, and led 4-3, 40-15, but Godsick began to find that missing level and he went into the 10-minute break between the second and third sets with all the momentum after winning six straight games.

"I was not in a great mood out there, and once I started competing, I was like, let's just see what happens," Godsick said. "I'm a big believer that in order to win a tournament, you've got to almost lose once. That was today for me, so let's hope I can keep going."

Godsick spoke with his mother, former WTA star Mary Joe Fernandez, during the break, and her advice was simple.

"I told my mom when I was walking back to the fence, one last junior tournament, one last bit of magic," Godsick said. "Because I've come back from 4-0, 5-0 a lot in the past, growing up. And she just looked at me and told me, 'Nico smile, have fun. You're in Kalamazoo, you've gone through this whole process, just keep competing.'"

Despite the dispiriting end to the second set for Skrobarcek, he regrouped for the third, and he stayed with Godsick until serving at 2-3. At 30-40, Skrobarcek thought he detected that the ball had gone soft, so he stopped playing during the point, but because the ball was not broken, the point stood and Godsick had the only break he would need.

"The ATP and ITF, if you stop the point and the ball is soft, the point is replayed," said Godsick, who said he encountered the same situation in his second round match. "USTA, and I didn't know this until the last match, the rule is unless the ball is popped, you have to play it. Even if becomes flat, the point still stands and you replace it after. He stopped the point and the ref told him, it wasn't popped, it was flat. I wasn't going to argue it, because, in this situation, it's not my place, it's the ref's decision. It's not an easy way to break and not the way I would have liked it, but yeah, there was a lot of commotion out there today."

Godsick was on the other side of the equation last year in the round of 16, when eventual champion Learner Tien saved four match points after trailing Godsick 6-4, 5-1.

"I tried to block that one out of my memory," Godsick said. "It's back courts, Stowe Stadium, this is what happens. I'm on this end of it this time."

Godsick has had a series of injuries since last fall, with the most recent torn ligaments in his ankle, but considers himself ready to contend for the title.

"I came here to win the tournament," Godsick said. "Am I the favorite to win the tournament? Probably not, but there's no part of me that thinks I can't win this tournament. I've been injured, probably played the least amount of matches as anyone in the draw. I have the level, I've seen the level since I've been healthy, on and off. I've seen myself play my best tennis and I'm going to do my best to compete, play every point, fight like I did today. If I win or I lose, it's my last tournament and I'm here to have fun and definitely to win the tournament if I can."

While Godsick took advice from his mother during the break between the second and third sets, Zachary Cohen did not.

The 16-year-old from Pennsylvania had lost the second set to No. 4 seed Jack Satterfield 7-5, after taking the first set 6-4, but he felt no need to change anything for the third set.

"My mom wanted me to call my coach, but I thought I was playing really well," Cohen said. "I just wanted to keep doing what I was doing, not really hear anything from anybody."

The third set was close initially, but Satterfield, who won the 16s National Clay Courts last month in Delray Beach Florida, began struggling with an injury, and although he did not call a trainer, Cohen was aware that Satterfield's movement was compromised.

"It was a tough ending, he ended up cramping pretty badly in the third," said No. 33 seed Cohen, who took the third set 6-2. "It was a really great match until the end, but it's a tough way for it to end for anybody. I had a tough first round that I got through yesterday, and I really didn't look ahead in the draw. Jack's obvious a great opponent, unlucky for him today that he had some issues with his legs or stomach."

The other top seeds in the 16s made it through to the fourth round in straight sets. Top seed Maxwell Exsted defeated James Quattro, a 33 seed, 6-4, 6-4; No. 2 seed Cooper Woestendick had a little difficulty closing out unseeded Lukas Phimvongsa but broke for a 6-1, 6-4 victory; No. 3 seed Cassius Chinlund defeated Jack Di Menna, a 33 seed, 6-3, 6-2. The other Top 16 seed to go today was No. 14 Andrew Ena, who lost to No. 33 seed Nathan Gold 6-3, 6-4.

In the 18s, the top six seeds again made it through without incident, with defending champion and No. 1 seed Learner Tien beating Mikel Anderson 6-3, 6-0; No. 2 seed Nishesh Basavareddy struggled a bit but beat No. 33 seed Ian Bracks 6-3, 6-4; No. 3 seed Kyle Kang defeated No. 33 seed Mitchell Lee 6-3, 6-2; No. 4 seed Aidan Kim took out No. 33 seed Karan Raghavendra 6-1, 6-1; No. 5 seed Cooper Williams beat Nathan Blokhin 6-0, 6-2 and No. 6 seed and 2022 16s champion Darwin Blanch downed No. 33 seed Callum Markowitz 6-1, 6-4.

Blanch and Calvin Baierl will meet on Tuesday in a rematch of their 16s encounter in the final last year, after No. 33 seed Baierl defeated No. 21 seed Shaurya Bharadwaj 7-6(1), 4-6, 7-5.

The only Top 16 seed to exit today in the 18s was No. 14 Alexander Frusina, who lost to University of Kentucky rising freshman Eli Stephenson 6-1, 7-6(2) at WMU.

Complete results of all matches can be found at the USTA tournament site.

Although the third round of singles was completed today after a the drizzle cleared after noon, there were no doubles played, with the third round postponed until Tuesday for both divisions.

The rain has kept the feed-in consolation tournament from proceeding as normal, so in order for that to realign, no 16s singles main draw matches played on Tuesday. The fourth round of singles in the 18s will be played Tuesday, beginning at 11 a.m. at Stowe Stadium. 

The current weather forecast for Tuesday features a less than 10 percent chance of rain.

Live streaming is available (on Stowe courts 1-3 and 6-11) via the ustaboys.com website. Live scoring is available through ioncourt.com.

The ITF World Junior Tennis team competition got underway today in Prostejov Czech Republic, with the USA boys the No. 2 seeds and the USA girls the No. 4 seeds. Rain kept the first round robin matches from being completed, but the US boys did take a 2-0 win over Peru. The US girls are scheduled to take on the Czech Republic in their first round group match Tuesday. There was one big upset, with girls top seed Romania losing to Brazil 2-1.  For a list of the round robin groups, and a link to live scoring, see this from the ITF Junior website.  The ITF tournament page with results and team participants is here.