Trevor Svajda Keeps Family's Kalamazoo Winning Streak Going with Win over Kim; Local Favorite Caldwell Defeats No. 3 Seed in 16s Fourth Round; 18s Quarterfinals Set for Thursday, with 2022 Champions Facing Off; Top Seeds Still Alive in San Diego

©Colette Lewis 2023--
Kalamazoo MI--

Zachary Svajda won back-to-back Kalamazoo 18s titles in 2019 and 2021, leaving the junior ranks with a perfect 14-0 record in his only two years competing in the USTA National Championships.

His brother Trevor is making his Kalamazoo debut this year, and the 17-year-old from San Diego is continuing the family's success, reaching the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-3 win over No. 4 seed Aidan Kim.

Svajda, seeded No. 10, has yet to drop more than three games in any of the eight sets he's won this week, and he was able to thwart the net-rushing of Kim, a rising freshman at Florida, with his pinpoint returns.

"He's definitely tall, has a good serve and he served and volleyed a lot," Svajda said. "But I was returning well enough where he wasn't serving and volleying as often. It was a pretty close 6-3, 6-3, only I think one break in each set."

Svajda has played almost no junior tournaments, and Kalamazoo is the first tournament he's ever taken a flight to compete in, so all his opponents, and their game styles are new to him.

"I was done pretty early, so I got to scout a little bit, and that definitely helped," Svajda said. "I knew he was big on serve and volley, so I knew I just had to hold serve, play one good return game."

Svajda said that brother Zach, now 211 in the ATP rankings, didn't have any particular tips for success in Kalamazoo, but he's discovered a routine that's working well for him when it comes to his dinner plans.

"There's a restaurant we go to every night," said Svajda, who admits that he is superstitious. "University Roadhouse, it's definitely my favorite. I've had the same meal every night and probably will again tonight. I have a bacon cheeseburger, with some shrimp, to make it a little healthy."

Svadja's opponent in Thursday's quarterfinals will be 2021 16s finalist Lucas Brown, the No. 16 seed. Brown ended the run of the only unseeded player in the 18s round of 16, Brandon Carpico, by a 6-4, 6-2 score. 

The other quarterfinal in the bottom half will feature No. 2 seed Nishesh Basavareddy and No. 9 seed Roy Horovitz. Basavareddy trailed No. 33 seed Nikita Filin 4-0 in the second set before rebounding for a  6-1, 7-6(4) victory, while Horovitz came back to beat No. 8 seed Nicholas Godsick 3-6, 6-2, 6-0.

Top seed and defending champion Learner Tien defeated No. 12 seed Zhengqing Ji 6-4, 6-3 and will face 2022 16s champion Darwin Blanch, who beat 2021 16s champion Alexander Razeghi, the No. 13 seed, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Although Blanch, the No. 6 seed, has not played Tien before, he is familiar with his game and what to expect.

"I think we're pretty similar players," the 15-year-old Blanch said. "I think we're both aggressive, consistent on both sides, and our movement is pretty good. So it should be a really good match, I'm excited."

The other quarterfinal will be a rematch of the 2022 Orange Bowl quarterfinal with Stanford rising freshman Kyle Kang, the No. 3 seed, facing No. 5 seed Cooper Williams, a rising freshman at Harvard. Williams won that Orange Bowl encounter in Plantation Florida, on clay, 7-5, 2-6, 6-4.  Today, Kang defeated No. 20 seed Cyrus Mahjoob 6-3, 7-6(5), while Williams took out No. 15 seed Adhithya Ganesan 6-2, 6-0.  Williams has lost only ten games in his first four matches.

The 18s singles quarterfinals are scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at Stowe Stadium.

The 16s division is a round behind the 18s, so they will play their round of 16 matches beginning at 8:30 a.m. at Stowe Stadium.

The local fans will have a rooting interest in Thursday morning's matches after No. 30 seed Simon Caldwell of nearby Grand Rapids Michigan defeated No. 3 seed Cassius Chinlund 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 today on Acker Court at Stowe Stadium.

Caldwell, who just turned 16 last month, was not discouraged when Chinlund took the first set, and he did not let Chinlund's frequent loud outbursts to disrupt his concentration.

"Cassius played a great first set, and I had to tell myself to rebound, play every point tough," Caldwell said. "And I think I did that very well. There's some things that he says or does, but you've just got to play the game and focus on yourself, and that's what I had to do."

Caldwell was able to take control of the third set, and after Chinlund was given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for his outbursts by the tournament referee at the 2-1 changeover, he did not win another game. Caldwell, sensing his opportunity, locked in, made no errors and played like the underdog he was.

"I started making a lot more balls, making him play more, more rallies, getting him tired," said Caldwell, who trains with Tom Walker at Grand Rapids Racquet and Fitness. "At the end, I came up with a couple of really nice winners and eventually served it out."

Although Caldwell admitted that he has been nervous in that situation in other tournaments, he avoid that today.

"Usually there are (nerves), somehow this time, I didn't really feel any," Caldwell said. "Usually I would get nervous in a match like that, but today was not that day. Before when I've been playing great players I've had match points but haven't come out on top, so I've been in those moments and I know how to handle them. I take a lot of deep breaths, and serving for the match, I tell myself, can I hit this really well under pressure. That makes me fire up more, and it worked out today."

As Chinlund began to alienate the crowd with his outbursts, they became even louder in their support of Caldwell, and he credited them with helping him through the tough moments in the match.

"It was a great feeling, so many hometown people coming to cheer me on," said Caldwell, who won the Division IV state high school championship at Grand Rapids West Catholic last fall. "Nothing gets better in junior tennis. It was awesome."

Caldwell will face No. 16 seed Keaton Hance, a 15-year-old who is playing in Kalamazoo for the first time. Hance defeated No. 26 seed Drew Fishback 6-4, 7-6(3).

Top seed Max Exsted will face No. 11 seed Nicholas Mekhael, a 6-1, 6-3 winner over No. 33 seed Bryan Assi, after Exsted defeated No. 33 seed Gavin Goode 6-0, 6-3. 

No. 2 seed Cooper Woestendick could shake unseeded Benjamin Willwerth until late in the first set, but he eventually posted a 6-4, 6-1 victory. Woestendick's opponent in the round of 16 will be No. 12 seed Ronit Karki, who beat No. 31 seed Nolan Balthazor 7-6(2), 6-1.

The doubles quarterfinals are set for both age divisions after Wednesday evening's fourth round matches.

18s top seeds Tien and Williams hit a speed bump in their second set against No. 16 seeds Mitchell Lee and Andrew Delgado, but stayed relaxed throughout the deciding match tiebreaker for a 6-2, 0-6, 10-6 victory.  No. 2 seeds Godsick and Kim closed out the night with a 7-6(2), 6-4 victory over No. 13 seeds Ji and Brown. Brown won the 16s doubles title with Godsick in 2021.

No. 4 seeds Razeghi and Horovitz lost to No. 10 seeds Brendan Boland and Jack Ingram 6-4, 6-4.

In the 16s, No. 2 seeds Jagger Leach and Joseph Oyebog led No. 13 seed Jack Satterfield and Nathan Germino 6-1, 4-2, but Satterfield and Germino came back for a 1-6, 7-6(5), 11-9 victory, after trailing 8-5 and 9-8 in the match tiebreaker.

Top seeds Exsted and Woestendick defeated  No. 15 seeds Ryan Cozad and Yannick Alvarez 6-3, 6-2.

The 16s doubles quarterfinals are scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m., with the 18s scheduled to start at 5 p.m. The junior wheelchair event begins Thursday at noon on Courts 4 and 5 at Stowe Stadium.

Draws can be found at the USTA website.  

Live scoring is available at ioncourt.com.   

Live streaming for all Stowe courts can be found at ustaboys.com.   

The quarterfinals are set for the Girls 16s in San Diego:

Christina Lyutova[1] v Thara Gowda[33]

Julieta Pareja[9] v Kaeda Usui[17]

Anita Tu[7] v Jessica Kovalik[17]

Anna Frey[11] v Leena Friedman[2]    

The round of 16 for the Girls 18s in San Diego:

Clervie Ngounoue[1] v Elizabeth Ionescu[33]

Tatum Evans[5] v Gayathri Krishnan[33]

Victoria Osuigwe[3] v Tianmei Wang[11]

Valerie Glozman[6] v Daria Smetannikov[17]

Ariana Pursoo[12] v Piper Charney[17]

Qavia Lopez[33] v Eleana Yu[17]

Ahmani Guichard[33] v Katherine Hui[17]

Kayla Chung[17] v Reese Brantmeier[2]

Rain has been a problem in Georgia, but the G12s quarterfinals are set:

Allison Wang[1] v Audrey Dussault[13]

Nikol Davletshina[3] v Vibha Gogineni[8]

Olivia Lin[6] v Daniela Del Mastro[4]

Daniela Davletshina[5] v Kathryn Cragg

The G14s in Rome Georgia will play their round of 16 matches Thursday, weather permitting.

The B12s quarterfinals:

Payton Yea[17] v Jiarui Zhang[6]

Joshua Dolinsky[3] v Siddhant Dua[7]

Rex Kulman[5] v Evan Puente

Nicholas Du[8] v Tristan Ascenzo[2]

The B14s quarterfinals:

Julian Zhang[33] v Safir Azam[5]

Tanishk Konduri[3] v Navneet Raghuram[9]

Anish Poojari[13] v Erik Schinnerer[4]

Arjun Krishnan v James Andrew Ross[17]