San Diego Open ATP 250 tournament officials have awarded a Main Draw wild card to a two-time national champ, Zachary Svajda, 19, of San Diego.
The $612,000 men’s professional tennis tournament gets underway Saturday at Barnes Tennis Center near Ocean Beach.
Svajda, who won the Boys’ 18s national title in 2019 and 2021, turned professional in 2019.
He is currently ranked No. 374 in the Pepperstone ATP Singles Rankings after reaching a career-high No. 306 this past August. He has spent most of 2022 competing in ATP Challenger Tour and International Tennis Federation World Tennis Tour events in the U.S. and Canada.
“Obviously, I am very excited to participate in the main draw of the San Diego Open ATP 250 for the first time in my career. It will be very special to have my family and friends at the Barnes Tennis Center to support me in my hometown event,” Svajda said. “More importantly, I want to thank Tournament Director Ryan Redondo for providing me this opportunity.”
During his career, Svajda has made three U.S. Open appearances. His best result there was in 2021 when he defeated Italy’s Marco Cecchinato 7-6 (6), 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 in the opening round before falling in the second round to another Italian, Jannik Sinner 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (6), 6-4.
The 2022 San Diego Open ATP 250 tournament features a 28-player singles main draw and 16-team doubles draw. In addition to the purse, tournament champions receive 250 ATP ranking points.
Main draw matches begin at 11:30 a.m. Monday. The tournament concludes on Sept. 25 with the singles and doubles championships.
There also will be a 16-player qualifying singles draw Saturday and Sunday with four qualifiers advancing to the main draw.
In Saturday’s matches, Ernesto Escobedo saved a match point to defeat Bradley Klahn of Poway, 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-2. Klahn is a Stanford alum and former NCAA champion.
UCLA standout Govind Nanda scored a high-profile upset when he eliminated top seed Juan Pablo Ficovich of Argentina, 6-3, 6-1, in one hour and 17 minutes on the Grandstand.
American Mitchell Krueger rallied from a set down to defeat Stanford-commit Hudson Rivera, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, while New Yorker Aleksandar Kovacevic was a 7-6(5), 6-2 winner over Giovanni Oradini of Italy.
Emilio Nava, a boys’ singles finalist at both the Australian Open and U.S. Open in 2019, got off to a winning start, racing past Gage Brymer, 6-1, 6-1, in just 53 minutes.
Also advancing on Saturday was Czech Marek Gengel, who defeated Sebastian Fanselow, 6-2, 3-6, 6-0.
Tickets for the 2022 San Diego Open ATP 250 are on sale now on the official tournament website here.
Barnes Tennis Center also will host the 2022 San Diego Open WTA 500 from Oct. 8-16.
Updated 9:25 p.m. Sept. 17, 2022