INDIAN WELLS/STARNBERG, January 24, 2024
Talk about David slaying Goliath. Seventeen-year-old wild-card Trevor Svajda of San Diego was ready to pack his slingshot into his tennis bag and head back to Dallas where he is a freshman No. 1 player on Grant Chen’s Southern Methodist University team following a 6-0 first-set defeat against No. 5-seeded Tennys Sandgren. But somehow Svajda was able to settle down and earn his first ATP Challenger Tour win in two tiebreakers, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3), against the former world No. 41 from Tennessee to reach the second round of the Southern California Open 2.
The precocious little brother of two-time Kalamazoo Nationals champion Zach finally had his day in the sun. “I’m just so happy to get my first main-draw Challenger win today in my backyard,” said Svajda, last year’s Kalamazoo singles runner-up. “I’ve always loved Indian Wells Tennis Garden and the people that run it. It is a special place, and I have so many memories of coming to watch and play. I’m really excited to play doubles tomorrow with my brother. We played a few years ago at the Calabasas Futures and hope for many more to come. This is an amazing series of tournaments being run by USTA SoCal and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to play.”
Max McKennon from Newport Beach was the only SoCal player to qualify during final-round action at the Southern California Open one day after rain washed out the entire schedule of play Monday. The senior McKennon – who beat San Diego’s Keegan Smith, 6-4, 6-3 – then watched as brand-new Arizona State teammate from Slovenia, freshman Bor Artnak, also qualified. Last season’s Big 10 Freshman of the Year from Michigan State Ozan Baris beat San Diego wild card Elijah Strode as all six of the final qualifying matches ended in straight sets. Former Australian Open junior champion Bruno Kuzuhara beat Stefan Kozlov and two more with college ties – Andre Ilagan from Hawaii and Chile’s Matias Soto, who played at Baylor – also advanced to the main draw. Interestingly, the 2023 SoCal Pro Series Lakewood winner Ilagan beat Jaimee Floyd Angele from France, who won the same title in 2022.
RESULTS – TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 2024
Singles – First Round
[1] [WC] Z. Svajda (USA) d G. Debru (FRA) 64 61
[3] M. Trungelliti (ARG) d L. Gerch (GER) 62 63
[4] B. Holt (USA) d [WC] R. Seggerman (USA) 63 64
[WC] T. Svajda (USA) d [5] T. Sandgren (USA) 06 76(4) 76(3)
[6] M. Krueger (USA) d O. Kumar (USA) 76(2) 63
B. Bicknell (JAM) d [7] A. Mayo (USA) 63 64
S. Kirchheimer (USA) d E. Zhu (USA) 64 64
[Alt] L. Tien (USA) d G. Oradini (ITA) 62 63
S. Fanselow (GER) d [Alt] V. Pospisil (CAN) 62 75
Y. Oliel (ISR) d B. Lock (ZIM) 36 76(3) 60
Qualifying Singles – Second Round
Qualifying – [3] B. Kuzuhara (USA) d [Alt] S. Kozlov (USA) 76(6) 64
Qualifying – M. Soto (CHI) d [4] T. Fancutt (AUS) 75 75
Qualifying – [6] B. Artnak (SLO) d [9] E. Clark (USA) 63 64
Qualifying – [WC] M. Mckennon (USA) d [8] K. Smith (USA) 64 63
Qualifying – A. Ilagan (USA) d [10] J. Angele (FRA) 61 61
Qualifying – O. Baris (USA) d [WC] E. Strode (USA) 61 62
To watch the free live stream, go to: ustasocal.com/socalopen/#live.
