My Kalamazoo Preview; Flawless Weather, Marathon Matches Highlight Opening Day of 18s Competition at USTA National Championships in Kalamazoo

©Colette Lewis 2023--
Kalamazoo MI--

The weather couldn't have been better as the 80th edition of the USTA Boys 18s and 16s National Championships got underway Friday at Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College's Stowe Stadium, with one round of 18s singles and two round of 18s doubles.

My annual preview of the tournament for the Tennis Recruiting Network was posted this morning, and with all 64 seeded players receiving a bye, those that I've highlighted in the article will not play until Saturday(for the 18s) and Sunday (for the 16s).

The clear skies, low humidity and light breezes minimized some of the mental and physical challenges that often accompany matches at Kalamazoo, but that didn't keep matches short, with several approaching four hours and one, on Court 11 at Stowe Stadium, clocking in at nearly five hours. In a 10 a.m. match that finished at 3 p.m., Dylan Chou defeated Jacob Mann 7-6(2), 5-7, 7-6(4), and with both players scheduled for 1 p.m. doubles matches, the impact of that match rippled throughout the afternoon and evening, delaying several of them at more than three hours.

When the top seeds in doubles finally took the courts after receiving first round byes, they made short work of their opponents, with the top five seeds advancing in straight sets.

Australian Open boys doubles champions and top seeds Learner Tien and Cooper Williams defeated Noah McDonald and Andrew Hayduke 6-1, 6-1, while No. 2 seeds Nicholas Godsick and Aidan Kim overcame a slow start to beat Jonah Hill and Sibby Rodi 6-4, 6-1. Godsick is aiming for his third straight Kalamazoo doubles titles after winning the 16s with Lucas Brown in 2021 and the 18s with Ethan Quinn last year.

No. 3 seeds and future Stanford teammates Nishesh Basavareddy and Kyle Kang, one of a select few teams to take the court at the scheduled match time of 3:30 p.m., defeated Emmanuel Alex and Alex Feies 6-1, 6-1, while No. 5 seeds Kaylan and Meecah Bigun defeated Cal Wider and Ian Uraga 6-4, 6-0.

No. 4 seeds Alexander Razeghi and Ray Horovitz were delayed over three hours while Chou received his rest time before his first round doubles match, but they showed no ill effects from it, beating Callum Markowitz and Shaurya Bharadwaj 6-3, 6-1 to close out the day's action at Stowe at a little past 8 p.m., 12 hours after it began.

Two seeded doubles teams were eliminated in their first matches (in the second round). Recent 18s Clay Court finalists Tygen Goldammer and Charlie Spencer, the No. 8 seeds, lost to Lathan Skrobarcek and Abhishek Thorat 6-2, 6-4 at Stowe Stadium. At Western Michigan University, Matthew Forbes and Rahul Sachdev defeated No. 14 seeds Krish Arora and Rudy Quan 7-6(6), 6-2.

Boys 16s singles begins with first round action at 8 a.m. Saturday. The second round of boys 18s singles begin at 11 a.m. and runs through 4:30 p.m. at both Stowe and WMU, with two rounds of boys 16s doubles. The schedule originally called for just one round of 16s doubles Saturday, but rain in the forecast for Sunday and Monday prompted the addition of the second round of doubles Saturday, when the seeds will begin play. First round B16s doubles matches begin at 1:30 p.m. The second round of 16s doubles is now scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m., with the last matches scheduled to go out at 6:30 p.m.

Live streaming, with point by point live scoring panels, is available on all 11 courts at Stowe Stadium and can be found at this link at the ustaboys.com website.

Live scoring, for all courts at WMU and Stowe, which did experience a few issues on the first day on several courts, is available through this link at ioncourt.com.