DAY #4 OF WEEK 2 AT THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA OPEN ATP CHALLENGER 50 AT INDIAN WELLS TENNIS GARDEN

FRIDAY’S CHALLENGER CHAT:

At the age of 32, Sebastian Fanselow definitely boasts the experience advantage over the other three semifinalists who won matches on Friday at the Southern California Open, an ATP Challenger 50 event taking place this week at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The German Fanselow, who had a decorated All-American career at Pepperdine University in Malibu from 2010 to 2013, has for the past 10 years been one of the “good guys” on the pro circuit level and someone the younger players have always looked up to. On Friday in a back-and-forth dual, Fanselow went toe-to-toe against 18-year-old Learner Tien of Irvine coming out on top, 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-4.

The veteran Fanselow has won 12 ITF singles titles and five in doubles over his decade-long career, but has never won anything over the $25,000 level (this week’s event has a total of $41,000 total in prize money). Currently ranked No. 324 in the world and unseeded this week, Fanselow will take on one of the tour’s “young guns” in top-seeded Zach Svajda on Saturday in the 10 a.m. semifinal. The youngest of the four remaining players at age 21, Svajda is seeking his fifth ATP Challenger win having won three in 2023. In the other semifinal to follow, 22-year-old Blaise Bicknell from Jamaica takes on qualifier Andre Ilagan, 23, from Hawaii. Bicknell had the quickest match of the day up a set against Brandon Holt when Holt was forced to retire at 2-all in the second because of a quad strain.

SATURDAY’S DOUBLES FINAL:

The dynamic doubles duo of Ryan Seggerman and Patrik Trhac played for the 50^th time on Friday since joining together at the Lakewood SoCal Pro Series event in July. On Friday, San Diego’s Seggerman and Trhac won for the 48^th time over those 50 matches beating Italy’s Giovanni Oradini and Chile’s Matias Soto, 7-6 (4), 6-3, to advance to Saturday’s doubles final. They will face Thomas Fancutt of Australia and Ajeet Rai of New Zealand following singles play.

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DAY #3 OF WEEK 2 AT THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA OPEN ATP CHALLENGER 50 AT INDIAN WELLS TENNIS GARDEN

THURSDAY’S CHALLENGER CHAT:

Four players with SoCal connections were among a group of eight who advanced to the quarterfinals during the Southern California Open Week 2 being played at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The quartet was led by top-seeded Zach Svajda of San Diego, who boasts an ATP World Tour ranking of No. 143 and climbing. The 21-year-old Svajda looked solid in his win over Strong Kirchheimer, 6-2, 6-1, and his singles match was one of seven of the eight that ended in straight sets. Zach’s younger brother Trevor Svajda, 17, was on the losing end of one of those matches as he fell short against former Pepperdine All-American Sebastian Fanselow of Germany, 6-4, 6-4. Irvine’s unseeded Learner Tien and No. 4 seed Brandon Holt from Rolling Hills were the others who moved on in the ATP Challenger 50 event that is handing out $41,000 in total prize money this week. Tien upset No 3 seeded Marco Trungelliti of Argentina dropping just two games, 6-2, 6-0, and Holt eliminated qualifier Bruno Kuzuhara, 6-3, 6-1, in similar dominating fashion. In what is becoming a familiar theme, Ryan Seggerman and Patrik Trhac won again in doubles. The pairing came back to beat last Sunday’s finals opponents, Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and Alex Lawson, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 10-7. It was the duo’s 47^th win in their last 49 matches which has included 11 titles over 13 total weeks.

FRIDAY LOOK AHEAD:

Svajda will take on qualifier Bor Artnak, 19, an Arizona State freshman who is already ranked No. 528 in the ATP World Tour rankings in a 10 a.m. match. Holt meets unseeded Blaise Bicknell from Jamaica in a match to follow Svajda-Artnak and Tien squares off against Fanselow. It will be Italy’s Giovanni Oradini and Chile’s Matias Soto with the task of stopping Seggerman-Trhac for a spot in Saturday’s doubles final.

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DAY #2 OF WEEK 2 AT THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA OPEN ATP CHALLENGER 50 AT INDIAN WELLS TENNIS GARDEN

WEDNESDAY’S CHALLENGER CHAT:

Last week it was Irvine’s Omni Kumar sending the No. 1 seed Federico Gaio of Italy to an early first-round dismissal. On Wednesday, as the first round came to a close, it was qualifier Andre Ilagan from Hawaii who gave the No. 2 Gaio his walking papers and another early exit following Ilagan’s 6-2, 7-5 win. Ilagan joined fellow qualifiers Bor Artnak of Slovenia and Bruno Kuzuhara, who advanced to the second round, as did No. 8 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, who beat Newport Beach qualifier Max McKennon. Last week’s doubles champions Ryan Seggerman and Patrik Trhac opened their title defense with a solid 7-6 (2), 6-4 win over former UCLA players Keegan Smith and Evan Zhu. Seggerman-Trhac have now won 46 of their last 48 matches they’ve played since first teaming up in July.

THURSDAY’S LOOK AHEAD:

Last week’s Southern California Open Week 1 singles winner Mitchell Krueger takes on 19-year-old qualifier Artnak at 10 a.m. in a second-round match. Arizona State’s Artnak was a world-ranked junior who played the junior Grand Slams. Ranked No. 527 in the ATP world rankings, he currently has the highest ATP ranking of any NCAA freshman. Artnak has played as high as No. 2 singles and No. 1 doubles with ASU senior teammate McKennon in three dual matches since arriving in Tempe. Also on the schedule is last week’s finalist Brandon Holt, who takes on qualifier Kuzuhara after the Krueger-Artnak match. If you are near practice court 4 at 10 a.m. you will get your Svajda fill as wild card Trevor takes on German Sebastian Fanselow and older brother and top-seeded Zach plays Strong Kirchheimer, the 28-year-old veteran who played for Northwestern, in a match to follow.

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DAY #1 OF WEEK 2 AT THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA OPEN ATP CHALLENGER 50 AT INDIAN WELLS TENNIS GARDEN

TUESDAY’S MATCH OF THE DAY:

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 Challenger win in two tiebreakers, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3), against the former world No. 41 from Tennessee.

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 Trevor, 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.”

CHALLENGER CHAT:

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 Aussie 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.

WEDNESDAY’S LOOK AHEAD:

With his loss in singles, former two-time Australian Open quarterfinalist Sandgren now turns his focus to doubles where he is playing with Mexico’s Hans Hach Verdugo not before 11 a.m. against No. 3 seeds Scott Duncan of Great Britain and Hunter Reese of the U.S. Right around the same time, last week’s Week 1 doubles champions Ryan Seggerman and Patrik Trhac will begin their Southern California Week 1 title defense against former UCLA Bruins Keegan Smith and Evan Zhu, who both have NCAA doubles trophies on their mantels with different partners.

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To learn more about the Southern California Open, visit southerncaliforniaopen.com.