Anson Upsets No. 7 Seed Johnston in Kalamazoo Third Round 18s Match Finished Indoors; Karki Survives Upset Bid; Antonius Continues to Roll; Angus's Comeback Eliminates No. 14 Seed; Penickova Falls in W35 Final, Heads to San Diego
©Colette Lewis 2026--
Kalamazoo MI--
Only one unseeded player has advanced to the fourth round of the USTA B18s and 16s National Championships, but the No. 33 seeds made their mark Sunday, with seven of them beating Top 32 seeds on the 31 courts of Stowe Stadium and Western Michigan University.
The biggest upset of the day came after a 3:30 p.m. thunderstorm sent matches indoors. No. 33 seed Riley Anson, serving up 2-1 in the third set against No. 7 seed Noah Johnston, managed the 30-minute delay in getting matches set up in the Markin Tennis Center and completed his 6-7(6), 7-5, 6-3 victory.
"I wasn't super mad about it, honestly," Anson said of the delay. "I like playing indoors, I just played a tournament indoors a couple of weeks ago and I feel pretty comfortable there. Even though my momentum was stopped, I still got the job done indoors."
Anson, an 18-year-old from Laguna Niguel California, led 6-2 in the first set tiebreaker, lost six straight points, but handled that disappointment in the same fashion he handled the inopportune rain delay.
"It was pretty rough to be honest," said Anson, who has verbally committed to Princeton for 2027. "He played a few good points, but a couple were my fault; I could have extended the point, making a smarter decision instead of going for the kill shot. But I told myself to be professional, how would a professional handle this, just move on. There's two more sets if I want to win this match. I didn't just want to give it away, disappear in the second set. This is my last Kalamazoo and I didn't want to leave in the third round."
At 5-all Johnston double faulted on his game point, one of his 11 double faults in the match and Anson broke, then served it out.
"I knew I was going to hold that last game in the second set," Anson said. "I was feeling very confident with how I was serving in that second set."
Anson was happy with how quickly the was match moved indoors.
"I think we were the first option to play," Anson said. "It was nice, I didn't really want to wait. The longer the wait, the more the momentum goes back to neutral, and he can reset a little bit."
The other match in progress when lightning was detected prior to a heavy thunderstorm, had an even more dramatic finish, with No. 24 seed Roshan Santhosh coming from 6-3 down in the final set tiebreaker to claim the final five points of the match in his 2-6, 7-5, 7-6(6) win over No. 33 seed Erik Schinnerer.
No. 5 seed Ronit Karki barely escaped Johnston's fate, coming from a break down in both the second and third sets to defeat No. 33 seed Kayden Colombo 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Karki wasn't able to break the big serve of the 17-year-old from Georgia in the first set, so he was concerned when Colombo was able to break him twice in the second set.
"I got the first one back and that was already a lot of work," said the 18-year-old Stanford rising freshman, who is being coached this tournament by former Ohio State All-American Cannon Kingsley. "But I went down a break again shortly after that and I was honestly thinking to myself, from his perspective it was just hold, try to break again and then hold and he's run away with the match. I think he maybe got a little nervous or something, a few doubles faults, when in other service games he was popping aces."
Colombo consolidated his early break for a 3-1 lead, but that was the last game he won, with Karki sensing he had a physical edge in the last half of the third set.
"I think he started cramping a little bit, and on break point (serving at 3-2), he tried to serve and volley and I hit a good return," Karki said. "I had a little confidence when I saw he was breaking down physically, otherwise he was giving me a really hard time. He's got a big serve, a big forehand and he's not shy. If he sees the ball, he's going to rip it and come to the net. He closed out so many volleys today."
Karki is looking forward to the day off in singles for the 18s, as he was feeling the effects of the two-hour and 43-minute match.
"I wouldn't mind that," Karki said of the prospect of just a doubles match on Monday. "I'm a little tired, a little stiff; it was a battle."
No. 2 seed Michael Antonius was on the court against No. 33 seed Yashwin Krishnakumar for an hour and 32 minutes, more than an hour less than Karki, and he acknowledged his 6-1, 6-2 victory didn't tell the story of the match.
"Yaswin's very fast and he was retrieving really well," said the 16-year-old from New York. "Fighting for dear life on every single point. It may be one of the longest 1 and 2 matches of my career. It was a long match, but I definitely felt in control for the most time, dictating well with my strokes."
Antonius acknowledges he's come a long way since he fell in the 16s quarterfinals as the No. 1 seed here last year, with two pro singles titles this spring and summer and an appearance in the Roland Garros boys final in June.
"As the two seed there's kind of a target on your back throughout the tournament," said Antonius, the first American to win two USTA Pro Circuit events before turning 17. "But you can't win a tournament in one day. It's a long week. My expectations aren't really that high. Obviously I'd love to do well, make it to the finals at this tournament, but I just want to play my best tennis. And if I'm doing that, the result will come."
Top seed Jack Kennedy again needed to extricate himself from a tricky first set in his 6-4, 6-2 win over unseeded Nihal Narisetty, who led 4-2 before Kennedy began to find his rhythm against the big-serving left-hander.
No. 3 seed Andy Johnson dropped the second set to No. 33 Ford McCollum, but returned from the 10-minute coaching break to take a 3-0 lead, en route to a 6-0, 4-6, 6-2 victory.
No. 4 seed Keaton Hance beat unseeded Julian Zhang 6-2, 6-1.
No. 33 seed Graeme Angus fought back to beat fellow wild card and No. 14 seed Nikolas Stoot 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, with a revamped mindset helping him ignore his two previous losses to Stoot.
"I can't put expectations on myself," said Angus, who trains with his father Larry in Beaufort South Carolina. "I feel too much pressure and I don't compete as well as I should. And it's always going to be a tough match with him, he's such a great player."
Angus said he served well in the second and third sets and also changed his tactics on his groundstrokes.
"I needed to make more first serves," said Angus, who is expecting to sign with Elon for the spring season before the end of this month. "I played more through the middle of the court, not giving him as much angles to work with, and coming in when I have the opportunity to close out the point at the net."
Angus said he initially sought the attention of SEC programs before seeing that pursuit was hurting his tennis.
"I became very results oriented," Angus said. "And that's not good for me. I can't focus on results. At some point, I just realized that if I compete the way I compete, I'll attract the right coaches, and Elon is the right way to go."
The other 33 seeds who beat Top 32 seeds today are David Wu beat No. 31 seed Noble Renfrow 6-2, 6-4; Bryan Assi, who defeated No. 32 seed Mason Taube 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(2); Theo Hegarty, who beat No. 27 Jesse Yang 6-4, 6-4; Rowan Qalbani, who defeated No. 22 Carel Ngounoue 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) and Connor Plunkett, who beat No. 28 Arin Pallegar 6-2, 6-3.
The unseeded player through to the fourth round is Justin Zhang, who defeated No. 26 seed Alexander Suhanitski 6-4, 6-4 in the second round and No. 33 seed Micah Ward 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in today's third round.
No. 8 seed Yannik Alvarez withdrew from his match with No. 33 seed Zen Uehling due to illness.
The 16s division did not have main draw matches today, just back draw, but they will play their third round of singles and doubles Monday beginning at 10 a.m. 18s will play their third round of doubles in the afternoon, no singles main draw in 18s.
The seeds in the 16s division at the USTA Nationals in San Diego played for the first time today, with the top four seeds all advancing in straight sets.
The 18s seeds begin play Tuesday. Cracked Racquets is providing four hours of coverage at their YouTube channel.
Annika Penickova's winning streak in W35 tournaments ended at nine with a loss in today's final in Southaven Mississippi. Penickova, who is scheduled to play Mia Yoon in the second round in San Diego at 1:30 pm Monday, lost to unseeded Dana Guzman(Oklahoma) of Peru 6-2, 6-4.
No. 4 seeds Carmen Herea(Texas) of Romania and Anita Sahdiieva(Baylor, LSU) of Ukraine defeated top seeds Maria Fernanda Navarro and Victoria Rodriguez of Mexico 6-3, 5-7, 20-6 in the doubles final.
Timo Legout(Texas) of France won the singles title at the M25 in Southaven, with the No. 5 seed beating No. 7 seed Evan Zhu(UCLA) 6-2, 6-4 in the final.
Unseeded Kelly Giese(Lubbock Christian, Nebraska) and Sam Landau(Indiana, Duke) ended the winning streak of top seeds Max Exsted(USC) and Cooper Woestendick, taking the doubles final 1-6, 6-3, 10-8.
In the ATP Challenger 75 in Lexington Kentucky, unseeded Edas Butvilas of Lithuania defeated unseeded Andre Ilagan(Hawaii) 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(6) in today's final.
At the W100 in Landisville Pennsylvania, top seed Hanne Vandewinkel of Belgium defeated No. 2 seed Anastasia Zakharova of Russia 3-6, 6-3, 6-1. The doubles title went to top seeds I-Hsuan and Yi Tsen Cho of Taiwan, who beat unseeded Savannah Broadus(Pepperdine) and Kylie Collins(Texas, LSU, Oklahoma State) 6-2, 6-4 in the final.
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