By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
Sixteen-year-old Zach Svajda of San Diego will become one of the youngest men to ever compete at the U.S. Open Tennis Championships later this month at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Svajda earned a main draw wild card into America’s Grand Slam tournament by virtue of winning the USTA National Boy’s 18 Championships in Kalamazoo, Michigan defeating Govind Nanda 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 in the final. The winner of the annual event is granted an automatic wild card entry into the U.S. Open.
Svajda, who turns 17 in November, will be the youngest player to compete in the men’s singles main draw at the U.S. Open since a younger 16-year-old Donald Young (also the champion at Kalamazoo) played in the U.S. Open in 2005. Perhaps the most famous 16-year-old to play in the men’s singles draw at the U.S. Open was Aaron Krickstein, who after winning the title at Kalamazoo in 1983, incredibly reached the fourth round at the subsequent U.S. Open, beating No. 15 seed and former U.S. Open finalist Vitas Gerulaitis in the third round before falling to reigning French Open champion Yannick Noah in the fourth round. Jimmy Arias was also 16 years old when he played in the 1980 U.S. Open and won a first round match against Freddie Sauer of South Africa before losing to Roscoe Tanner in the second round. In 1986, Andre Agassi made his U.S. Open debut at the age of 16, losing in the first round to Jeremy Bates of Great Britain. In 1991, 16-year-old Jimmy Brown, the Kalamazoo champion, lost in the first round to Alejandro Cortes of Colombia.
The youngest player to win a match at the U.S. Open (in the Open Era since 1968) was Michael Chang, who at 15 years, 6 months, 10 days (also the Kalamazoo champion) defeated Paul McNamee in the first round of the 1987 U.S. Open. A year later, another 15-year-old champion of Kalamazoo, Tommy Ho, made history as a younger 15 year old, at 15 years, 2 months and 14 days old, becoming the youngest man to play in the U.S. Open in the Open Era. Ho, however, lost to Johan Kriek in the first round.
Prior to the “Open Era,” three other youngsters played in the U.S. Championships Wilber Coen played the event in 1928 at the age of 16 and reached the round of 32. Earlier in the year, Coen became the youngest player to compete for the U.S. Davis Cup team. Sidney Wood played in 1927 at the age of 15 years, 10 months and reached the round of 64. Four years later, Wood won Wimbledon at the age of 19, as explained in his book “The Wimbledon Final That Never Was” becoming the youngest man to win the singles title at the All England Club, a record that 17-year-old Boris Becker broke in 1985. In 1918, as documented in “The Bud Collins History of Tennis” book, Vinnie Richards set the standard as the youngest player to ever win a match at the U.S. Championships at the age of 15 years, 5 months and 8 days when he defeated Frank Anderson in his opening round 6-1, 6-3, 6-3
