All 16s Top Seeds Advance to Third Round at Kalamazoo, but Second Seed Goode Needs Three Sets; Frusina and Ganesan Begin Title Defense in 18s Doubles; USTA Pro Circuit Update; Americans Sweep Men's Titles at Washington ATP 500

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Kalamazoo MI--

The 18s division had the day off in singles at the USTA Boys Nationals Sunday, giving the 16s the limelight on a second consecutive hot and humid day at K College's Stowe Stadium and WMU's Sorensen Courts.

16s No. 1 seed Gus Grumet defeated Michael Lorenzetti 6-3, 6-2, No. 3 seed Jack Secord beat Jack Reis 6-0, 6-2, but the third left-hander of the top seeds, No. 2 Gavin Goode, struggled with his nerves and the game of Aidan Xu before pulling out a 6-7(4), 6-1, 6-2 victory.

"First match of the tournament, I was pretty nervous," said the 16-year-old from Raleigh North Carolina, who was playing "I had a lot of people watching me in the first set, the nerves kind of got to me. I didn't play a super smart first set, I was kind of playing into his strengths, but I started to play smarter in the second set, getting the ball more to his forehand, but I kind of just had to get the nerves out, really."

Goode found the key to his turnaround in the fourth game of the second set, breaking the 15-year-old from Katy Texas after several deuces, and winning five straight games to go up a break 1-0 in the third set.

"I realized I was playing my backhand line a little too much and he liked that a lot, because I think his backhand was his strength," said Goode, the 16s Easter Bowl champion. "I started mixing up my backhand to his forehand, get a little more cross and that seemed to work pretty well against him."

It wasn't exactly smooth sailing after that for Goode, who was broken in his next two service games in a string of five consecutive breaks, but he did hold for 4-2, got another break to serve for the match. His serve got him out of trouble in the final game, with a good first serve to save a break point, and another service winner to end the two-hour and 57-minute match.

Goode had an ab injury that kept him out of the Clay Courts, but he was healthy enough to practice prior to Kalamazoo, and was feeling good despite the long match in the 90 degree heat. 

"I got a lot of practice in, a lot of rehab every day for my ab, and it feels pretty good, I was ready for this tournament," Goode said. "I was playing a lot of practice matches, but it's obviously a lot different in a tournament, more nerves, not as comfortable."

Goode admitted that his confidence was not high after he dropped the opening set. 

"To be honest, I kind of thought I was going to lose the match after the first set," Goode said. "Going in as the 2 seed, it's not a great result, but I just had to block that thought and just compete well in the second and third set, and I thought I finished it pretty well."

Goode will play No. 33 seed Bryan Assi in the third round Monday afternoon.

 All of the top 16 seeds in the 16s advanced to the third round, and unlike the 18s, who lost both of the Clay Courts finalists in the second round Saturday, Grumet, the champion, and No. 8 seed Andrew Johnson, the finalist, won in straight sets.

A total of 10 seeds lost in their first match in today's second round, five 33 seeds and the 25, 26, 29, 31, and 32 seeds.

The seeds in both 18s and 16s doubles played for the first time on Sunday, and all of the Top 4 seeds advanced.

Defending 18s champions Alex Frusina and Adhithya Ganesan found themselves trailing Daniel Kim and Caden Lee 5-3 in the opening set, but Kim and Lee could not close out the set serving at 5-4, with Frusina and Ganesan claiming ten straight games for a 7-5, 6-0 victory, which extended their Kalamazoo winning streak to seven matches.

No. 2 seeds Cooper Woestendick and Maxwell Exsted, the Australian Open boys doubles champions, defeated Benedict Graft and Ethan Portnoy 6-4, 6-2; No. 3 seeds Benjamin Willwerth and Noah Johnston beat Alex Feies and Kartik Mandla 6-3, 6-4 and No. 4 seeds Alexander Razeghi and Nikita Filin defeated Houston Jacques and Sawyer Severance 7-5, 6-3.

No. 16 seeds Jack Kennedy and Jordan Reznik were down 2-0 and loss of toss for being late for their 6 p.m. match, but managed to overcome that deficit to post a 6-4, 6-2 win over Tobias Luo and Theodore Murphy.

Ryan Cozad and Yannik Alvarez, the top seeds in the 16s, defeated Gregory Bernadsky and Abraham Rosett 6-0, 6-4 and No. 2 seeds Adrien Abarca and Justin Anson beat Maksim Hristov and Henry Lessard 7-5, 6-4.

Both age divisions will play singles and doubles on Monday, starting with 18s at 9 a.m., although there is a 50 percent chance of rain.  Check ustaboys.com for weather information.  

Live streaming for matches at Stowe can be found here: https://ustaboys.com/tickets/live-streaming/

Live scoring can be found for all matches here: https://ioncourt.com/tournaments/669ff8bd38dfcc284365c5af/upcoming

To wrap up the three USTA Pro Circuit events this week, 2023 US Open boys champion Joao Fonseca of Brazil won his first Pro title at the ATP Challenger 75 in Lexington Kentucky. The 17-year-old, seeded No. 6, defeated No. 7 seed Li Tu of Australia 6-1, 6-4 in the final. Top seeds Sem Verbeek(Pacific) of the Netherlands and Andre Goransson(Cal) of Sweden won the doubles title, beating unseeded James Trotter(Ohio State) and Yuta Shimuzu of Japan 6-4, 6-3 in the final.

The W75 for women in Lexington was won by No. 7 seed Sijia Wei of China, who beat former Oklahoma State standout Mananchaya Sawangkaew of Thailand 7-5, 6-4 in today's singles final. 

No. 2 seeds Whitney Osuigwe and Alana Smith(NC State) won the doubles title, beating No. 3 seeds Carmen and Ivana Corley(Oklahoma) 7-6(5), 6-3 in the final.

Qualifier Gavin Young(Michigan) won his first pro title, beating Stanford's Kyle Kang 6-4, 6-3 in today's singles final at the $25,000 tournament in Edwardsville Illinois.

Felix Corwin(Minnesota), whose brother Oscar is competing this week in the Kalamazoo 18s, won the doubles title in Edwardsville  Saturday with Nathan Ponwith(Georgia, Arizona State). The No. 3 seeds defeated No. 4 seeds and Illinois teammates Oliver Okonkwo of Great Britain and Lucas Horve 7-6(6), 2-6, 10-5.

American men swept the titles at the ATP 500 in Washington DC, with No. 4 seeds Jackson Withrow(Texas A&M) and Nathaniel Lammons(SMU) taking the doubles title with a 7-5, 6-3 win over No. 8 seeds Rafael Matos and Marcelo Melo of Brazil. It's the biggest title for Withrow and Lammons, who also won the ATP 250 in Atlanta last week.

And Sebastian Korda won his biggest title, taking the singles championship tonight with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 win over Flavio Cobolli of Italy. It's the second ATP title for the 24-year-old Korda, who will move to a career-high of 18 in Monday's rankings. He is the first American man to win the Washington title since Andy Roddick in 2007 and made the record books with his father Petr, who won the Washington title in 1992, becoming the first father and son to win the same ATP title. For more on the final, see this article from the ATP website.

In the final day of the Olympic Tennis competition in Paris, Novak Djokovic of Serbia won the gold medal, beating Carlos Alcaraz of Spain 7-6(3), 7-6(2). Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini of Italy won the women's gold medal in doubles, beating Diana Shnaider(NC State) and Mirra Andreeva 2-6, 6-1, 10-7.