Zachary Svajda ( ; born November 29, 2002) is an American professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. He achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 168 on September 18, 2023, and he peaked at No. 664 in doubles on August 8, 2022.

Early life and background

A native of

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, Svajda took up tennis at the age of 2, initially coached by Matt Hanlin. He is of Czech descent. He earned his first ATP World Tour ranking point at the age of 15, defeating top-seeded

João Lucas Reis da Silva João Lucas Reis da Silva (born 26 March 2000) is a Brazilian tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a ...

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6–3, 6–4 at the 2018 Claremont Club Pro Classic as a local main-draw wild card.

Professional career

2019: ATP and Grand Slam debut

On August 11, 2019, Svajda defeated

Govind Nanda Govind Nanda (born February 17, 2001) is an American tennis player. He has a career-high singles ranking of 339 achieved on October 3, 2022, and a career-high doubles ranking of 497 achieved on August 22, 2022. Personal life Nanda is of Indian ...

6–7^(3–7), 7–5, 6–3, 6–1 to win the

USTA The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, ...

Boys 18s National Championship. This victory earned the 16-year-old a wild card into the main draw of the 2019 US Open, making him the youngest player to play in the men's US Open since Donald Young in 2005. There, despite succumbing to full-body cramps in a five-set first round loss to

Paolo Lorenzi Paolo Lorenzi (; born 15 December 1981) is an Italian former professional tennis player. Lorenzi was coached by Claudio Galoppini. Tennis career Lorenzi reached his first ATP World Tour final at the age of 32, in São Paulo. Here, at the 2014 B ...

, he drew attention as a future prospect in American professional tennis for his solid ground strokes and adept net play.

2021: First Major win at the US Open

After defeating Ben Shelton 6–1, 6–4, 6–1 to defend his Boys 18s National Championship title, Svajda was given another wildcard into the US Open. There, ranked world No. 716, he beat world No. 81

Marco Cecchinato Marco Cecchinato (; born 30 September 1992) is an Italian professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of World No. 16 reached on 25 February 2019. On 29 April 2018, he won his first ATP World Tour title at the 2018 Hungar ...

to progress to the second round before bowing out against 13th seed

Jannik Sinner Jannik Sinner (; ; born 16 August 2001) is an Italian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 9 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved on 1 November 2021, and world No. 124 in doubles, achieved on 2 ...

in four tight sets. The latter was an unexpectedly close match between two young players with a differential in ranking of over 700 spots.

2022: Maiden Challenger title

He won his maiden title at the

2022 Tiburon Challenger The 2022 Tiburon Challenger was a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the fourteenth edition of the tournament which was part of the 2022 ATP Challenger Tour. It took place in Tiburon, United States between 3 an ...

defeating compatriot Ben Shelton. As a result he climbed to a career-high No. 255 on 10 October 2022.

2023: Top 250 debut

In August, Svajda entered the main draw of the US Open as a qualifier.https://www.usopen.org/en_US/news/articles/2023-08-26/meet_the_2023_us_open_mens_qualifiers.html

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 5 (5–0)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Svajda, Zachary Living people 2002 births American male tennis players Sportspeople from La Jolla, San Diego Tennis players from San Diego American people of Czech descent es:Zachary Svajda#top