Tien Goes for Second Straight Kalamazoo 18s Title Against Svajda; Woestendick and Gaskell Meet for 16s Championship; Frusina and Ganesan Take 18s Doubles, Patrick and Kalinin Win 16s Doubles; Ngounoue and Hui in G18s FInal; Lyutova Takes G16s in San Diego

©Colette Lewis 2023--
Kalamazoo MI--

On Sunday, Learner Tien will play for a second straight Kalamazoo 18s title. Standing in his way is Trevor Svajda, the brother of the last player to achieve back-to-back 18s championships, 2019 and 2021 winner Zachary Svajda.

Storms moved through the area Saturday morning, delaying the start of the 18s semifinals by three hours, while sending the 16s semifinals indoors at Markin Center.

But the Stowe courts were playable by 2 p.m., and the delays didn't appear impact top seed Tien and No. 10 seed Svajda. Tien defeated No. 5 seed and doubles partner Cooper Williams 6-2, 7-5 on Court 2, while Svajda came through a 65-minute first set to eliminate No. 2 seed Nishesh Basavareddy 7-6(3), 6-1.

As the defending champion, Tien already had a wealth of experience to draw on, and the delays on semifinal Saturday were nothing new.

"It was a lot of deja vu from last year," said Tien, a 17-year-old left-hander from Irvine California. "From having to warm up indoors, playing on the same court as last year against Marty(Damm), the rain delays, going in and out, it was reminiscent of last year. But it's all things I have fond memories of, so I was able to kind of follow the same routine."

Tien went up a break at 3-1 in the first set, but gave it right back with two double faults, only to reassert himself by breaking Williams again for a 4-2 lead. Williams, who had been extremely efficient in his first five victories, losing only 13 games total, was making it difficult on himself with unforced errors, and Tien took the first set in just 36 minutes.

The second set was much higher quality, with Williams cleaning up his errors, and there were no breaks in the first seven games. But three unforced errors on the forehand from Williams gave Tien a break and a 5-3 lead. Tien was unable to serve out the match, although he found another similar situation to comfort him at that moment.

"I wasn't really worried," said Tien, who never appears flustered by anything that happens during a match. "When I played him at Fayetteville(Arkansas $15K) last year, I was serving for it at 5-3 in the second set, I got broken, he held for 5-all, and I won the next two games 7-5. I knew he'd have to hold two more times so I felt pretty good about closing it before a tiebreak."

Serving at 5-6, Williams made three unforced errors and then double faulted, never looking as if he believed he could beat Tien.

"I joked about it with him this whole tournament," said Tien, who had beaten Williams last year in the quarterfinals and twice since then, all last year. "Whether I was kidding or not. From the start of this tournament we've been saying we're in each other's semi; obviously I had to come through Darwin(Blanch) and he had to come through Kyle(Kang), but he was like, I can't wait to play you. I told him, laughing, you have no real belief you can beat me. I don't know why you say you want to play me, I know you really don't want to. But we knew we'd run into each other again, we haven't played in a while, we could be completely different players then, so I tried not to be overconfident, but know that I have what it takes to beat him."

Because Svajda has played very little tournament tennis, Tien knows there will be a different dynamic in the final.

"I think he has a very clean game," said Tien, who has seen Svajda occasionally at the USTA Training Center in Carson California, but has never played him. "I feel like the way he plays, he's able to beat some of these guys, they haven't seen him very much, and wow, who is this kid, and suddenly you're losing. He's very smooth, very clean, makes you work pretty hard. I think it will be a good match."

Svajda went up an early break on Basavareddy, who won the ITA Fall National Championships as a freshman at Stanford in November, but couldn't hold on to it, dropping serve at 4-3. But in the tiebreaker, Svajda was the steadier player, a lesson he learned after dropping a first set tiebreaker in the quarterfinals to Lucas Brown.

"I was up 3-1 (against Brown) and double faulted, and I don't think I made a first serve in the whole tiebreaker," said the 17-year-old from San Diego. "So today I was just focusing on getting the first serve in during this one. I definitely served really well today. In all my other matches, that's what's been letting me down in the tight points, and today I was able to really use my serve. I controlled the court well, and he wasn't hitting lines very much, so I was placing the ball well and using my backhand line a lot. It was definitely my best match here for sure."

Svajda is looking forward to his first match with Tien.

"I know he's a great player," Svajda said. "We haven't hit much, maybe once in the past two years, but I'm looking for a battle."

Svajda said he expects to hear from his brother, but isn't anticipating any tips about playing the Kalamazoo final. 

"I'm sure he'll congratulate me, but it's like any other match," said Svajda, who avoids any emotional displays while on court. "I think it's an advantage to stay calm out there. The more you scream and yell c'mon and stuff, the more energy you use, so I try not to do it much."

After breaking his restaurant routine last night, Svajda has proven that he's not going to obsess about much of anything as it relates to his performance in Kalamazoo.

"I changed it up last night," said Svajda, who had been eating a bacon cheeseburger and shrimp at a nearby restaurant. "I had Chipotle. But if I would have lost, I would never have eaten at a Chipotle again."

The 18s singles final is scheduled for 1:30 p.m., after the 16s singles final, and will be the best of five, with the winner receiving a US Open men's main draw wild card and the finalist a US Open men's qualifying wild card.

The 16s semifinals were sent indoors when the morning's weather forecast deteriorated, with not much leeway as far the schedule was concerned with No. 2 seed Cooper Woestendick needing to play both the singles semifinals and the doubles final Saturday.

Woestendick continued his streak of dominant scorelines, beating No. 32 seed Noah Johnston 6-2, 6-1 without facing a break point.

"It went to 30 maybe a couple of times, but I held handily," said the 16-year-old from Kansas, who is playing in the 16s division for the third consecutive year. "His serve was good, that was something I struggled with, but once I got in the rallies, I won most of them. He was getting some good movement on the ball, so it was tough for me to time, that was tricky, but I handled it well and broke a lot."

Woestendick said that the six straight-sets victories are exactly why he chose to play the 16s again. 

"This is what I came to do, get some confidence," Woestendick said. "I'm very happy with my play so far. The matches where the score indicates like I'm killing people, but it's closer than it looks, that's the matches I want. Matches I don't play perfect, don't play my best tennis, but still get through it, that's what I've been doing. Overall, I'm very happy with my tournament so far."

In contrast, Lachlan Gaskell, Woestendick's opponent in the final, has won three of his past four matches in three sets, coming from a set down in both the quarterfinals, against No. 5 seed Dominick Mosejczuk, and in today's semifinals, against No. 6 seed Jagger Leach.

Gaskell looked overmatched in the first set, but convinced himself to hit bigger as the match progressed.

"Honestly, I thought it was the end of my run after the first set, he was playing great and I was like asleep, not doing anything, all credit to him, but I did find my groove," said Gaskell, a 16-year-old from Delray Beach Florida. "But like all my other matches, I stayed in it, and he gave me a little bit, a few errors."

After leading 2-0 in the third set, Leach went up 30-0, but lost the next four points, and Gaskell held easily in his next three service games for 4-all.

Leach had three game points to go up 5-4, but Gaskell stayed aggressive and did not miss, staying in every rally.

"I went a little bigger in the third set," said Gaskell, who jumped on any second serve Leach gave him. "At 4-all, he had game points, I had break points. I lost one of my break points at 4-all, and I said, I hit too soft in that point. The next break point I got lucky, he double faulted, but I knew on that second serve I was going to hit it."

Gaskell recognized the margins were small throughout the second and third sets.

"At the end it was anybody's match, I just played a little bigger," Gaskell said. 

When growing up in Iowa, Gaskell played Woestendick often, in the Missouri Valley section.

"He's always killed me," said Gaskell, who if he wins Sunday will be the fifth consecutive left-hander to claim the 16s singles title. "We haven't played in like four years, but when we used to play, he was quite a lot better than me. So it will be tough tomorrow, he'll definitely be my toughest match so far, with the nerves, such a fantastic player, and a lot on the line, with the US Open junior wild card."

Woestendick was not able to claim his second consecutive Kalamazoo 16s doubles title, with No. 14 seeds Nicholas Patrick and Maxim Kalinin defeating Woestendick and Maxwell Exsted, the top seeds, 7-6(7), 6-1 in the final, played outdoors at Stowe Stadium.

Patrick and Kalinin, playing together for the first time, saved four set points in the first set tiebreaker, then dominated the second set for the title.

Patrick, who won last month's Clay Court doubles title with Oliver Narbut, needed a new partner when Narbut reunited with frequent partner Ian Mayew.

"We teamed up for the first time this tournament, and it turned out better than we could have imagined," said Patrick, a 16-year-old from Coal Valley Illinois. "This is my first experience in a semifinal or final," said Kalinin, a 16-year-old from Mamaroneck New York, who collected his first USTA gold ball this week. "I didn't expect to be here, but here we are."

Patrick and Kalinin had excelled in tiebreakers all week, whether regular or match deciding, and they rose to the occasion again today.

"We've played great in tiebreaks," Patrick said. "I think we've lost one tiebreak, but been very successful. That just comes with trusting our ability to come back, even if we are down, even if we are getting beat a little bit."

Kalinin was searching for a partner for Kalamazoo, and was happy to find one with a reputation for excellence in doubles.

"I was looking for a partner, had asked a few players, but he asked me, and I thought, all right, he's a great doubles player, had a lot of success in the past," Kalinin said. "I thought we'd be a good team and we ended up being an amazing team. We had our ups and downs, on and off the court, but what matters is that we won."

"I think as the tournament went on, we just trusted each other," said Patrick. "He trusts me on my serve, I trust him, it's just one of those things where we really kind of bonded, got closer throughout the tournament."

The 18s champions also were playing together for the first time and also had taken down the top seeds. No. 7 seeds Adhithya Ganesan and Alexander Frusina defeated No. 1 seeds Tien and Williams, reigning Australian Open boys champions, 6-3, 6-1 in Friday's semifinals and got another, much more dramatic win in Saturday final, beating No. 3 seeds Nishesh Basavareddy and Kyle Kang 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(6).

Ganesan and Frusina saved a match point at 5-6 in the third set tiebreaker, and when Ganesan missed his first serve, the tension rose.

But Ganesan got the second serve in, and after an exchange with Kang, eventually drew a forehand error.

"He hit a great a second serve, played some really good backhands cross and stayed really disciplined," said Frusina, a 17-year-old from Conroe Texas. "Fortunately we had that point go our way with Kyle's forehand sailing long. Major credit to him, because I didn't get a look on that point. He saved our tournament for sure."

Ganesan and Frusina knew each other, had played each other, and had trained together at USTA Player Development in Lake Nona on occasion, but were not sure what kind of a fit they would be on the doubles court.

"I just contacted him randomly, and he agreed to play," said Frusina. "We came here but obviously didn't expect much, just came out swinging, stayed really loose throughout the tournament, and I think that's why we gave ourselves the best chance to succeed."

Basavareddy and Kang took control of the second set early and went up 3-1 in the third, but could not hold on to the lead. They did save a match point on a deciding point at 4-5, but could not find their second set level in the tiebreaker.

"We lost the second 6-1, were down 3-1 in the third, but I got two doubles and I hit one good return," said Ganesan, a 17-year-old from Clarksburg Maryland, who begins his freshman year at Cornell in a few weeks. "But after we got the break, it was time to refocus and regroup, and we got through it."

Ganesan and Frusina are understandably excited about the prospect of competing in the main draw of the US Open later this month. 

"Growing up an American player, it's obviously a dream, since I was super young, to play in the US Open," Frusina said. "Ultimate goal is someday maybe to win it, but now, it's just an opportunity. I'm not sure if we've even processed it yet. I'm definitely looking forward to it, and I think we're both going to have an experience of a lifetime."

Live streaming of the 16s and 18s finals, as well as the feed-in consolation finals, is available at ustaboys.com. In the 18s consolation final, for fifth place, William Manning will play Matthew Forbes. It will be Drew Fishback and Ian Mayew in the 16s consolation final.

Live scoring is available at ioncourt.

Draws can be found here.

While Tien will play for his second straight 18s title Sunday, Eleana Yu fell short in her quest to defend her 18s title in San Diego, losing to San Diego's Katherine Hui 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 in the semifinals. Hui will play to seed Clervie Ngounoue, who defeated last year's finalist Valerie Glozman 6-0, 6-3.

The results from today's five USTA National Championships singles finals:

G12s:

Allison Wang[1] d. Daniela Davletshina[5] 6-4, 6-2

G14s:

Lyla Middleton[6] d. Reagan Levine[3] 6-2, 6-2

G16s:

Christina Lyutova[1] d. Anita Tu[7] 3-6, 7-5, 6-1

B12s:

Tristan Ascenzo[2] d. Joshua Dolinsky[3] 6-4, 3-6, 6-2

B14s:

Tanishk Konduri[3] d. Erik Schinnerer 6-3, 6-0