Quinn battles jet lag and SMU’s Trevor Svajda to advance, Spizzirri uses Texas support to reach second round at ATP 500 Dallas Open

I decided to focus on the two games played in the stands of the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, where the Dallas Cowboys have their training camp.

Although most of the impressive midweek crowd was glued to Center Court for 2024 champion Tommy Paul’s 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(4) win over Jenson Brooksby, I wanted to see the match between two former Kalamazoo 18s finalists: Ethan Quinn and wildcard Trevor Svajda.

Quinn, now No. 74 in the ATP Rankings, had played the SMU junior in the first round of the Dallas Open last year and earned a 6-4, 6-2 victory, but today’s match was much closer, with Quinn earning a 7-6 (3), 7-5 win.

Svajda, a 19-year-old from San Diego, earned the first break of the match by going up 3-2 in the first set, but Quinn immediately got the break back and earned a set point with Svajda serving at 4-5. But Svajda saved it with a good first serve, hitting one of his six aces on the next point and putting a forehand on the baseline to hold.

In the tiebreak, Svajda made an unnecessary mistake to fall behind 4–2 and Quinn took control with a perfect and rare drop shot winner to go up 6–3. Svajda missed a backhand wide to give Quinn the set, but continued to go toe-to-toe with the 21-year-old Californian throughout the second set, holding 0-40 at 4-all with some clutch serves.

But Quinn held on much more easily and with Svajda serving at 5-all 15-30, Quinn got an extremely lucky let cord winner on a return and converted on his first break point.

Quinn dropped the first point but then upped his game, finishing Svajda with his seventh and eighth aces of the match.

After winning his Davis Cup singles match in Hungary on Saturday, an emotionally draining 13-11 in a third-set tiebreak against Fabian Marozsan, Quinn was happy to start on Wednesday afternoon.

“I’m a little tired,” Quinn said in a Mixed Zone interview after the game. “It’s always a challenge to go from one continent to another, from Australia, back to North America, with just three or four nights to adjust to the North American time zone, then go to Europe and adjust to that time zone. It’s difficult, but that’s just part of professional tennis and as you do it more and more you just get used to it. This is one of the first times I’ve had to do that and it definitely affected me a little bit, but it was nice that the tournament got me gave me a Wednesday start, first giving up. If I had played later today, I don’t know how that would have gone.”

Quinn said he was impressed with how Svajda’s game has improved over the past 12 months.

“Last year I was able to be a little more physical with him, knock him off the court a little bit,” said Quinn, who lost to Learner Tien in the 2022 Kalamazoo 18s final and won the NCAA title the next year when he was a freshman at Georgia. “This year, Trevor was more aggressive with his second serve, which moved his positions a little more. On the deuce side, his slider out wide has improved tremendously, and he was able to hit that spot short into the box and I really had to go out and get him.”

Quinn is known for his powerful forehand, but he has worked hard on his backhand over the past year.

“My backhand side is nails now,” Quinn said. “It’s very solid, I’ve beaten guys on big points, just backhand to backhand. In the Davis Cup there were a lot of big points where I beat Fabian just backhand to backhand, taking him down, so from last year to now I think that’s the biggest improvement I’ve made, along with my serve. I’m able to hit my spots a little better, a little bigger.”

Quinn’s second-round opponent is 37-year-old Marin Cilic of Croatia, who won his 600th ATP match and avoided a rematch of the 2022 Kalamazoo final with a 7-5, 7-6(4) victory over Learner Tien on Tuesday.

“I saw him win his 600th ATP match yesterday,” Quinn said. “I mean, that’s just incredible how long he’s been able to do this. I remember as a kid watching him win the US Open in an era that was dominated by three guys. When I looked at him, you know I thought, it’s possible. Right now it’s like Jannik and Carlos are the guys you have to get through, but it’s possible to win a grand slam (now) because he’s proven it. So to be facing him on the other side of the court, it’s an honor.”

After Quinn and Svajda in the stands, Eliot Spizzirri and James Duckworth followed, with Duckworth getting the start on Wednesday after playing the Davis Cup for Australia this weekend in Ecuador.

Spizzirri was in control from the start, getting a break at 3-all in the second set and closing the match with his best play of the match with two winners and two great serves for a 6-2, 6-4 win.

The 24-year-old from Connecticut pointed to his improvement on that shot as one of the reasons he has risen to a career-high ATP ranking of 68.

“I would say the serve is a big part of my game that I’ve improved,” Spizzirri said. “It’s given me the ability to free up in return matches and get free points in service matches. It’s clearly one of the most important strokes in tennis, and now that that’s improved it carries over to better decision-making in other parts of my game.”

After his stunning match against Jannik Sinner in the third round of the Australian Open last month, Spizzirri admitted he saw a change in the recognition he was receiving.

“A little bit, I would say immediately after (the Sinner match),” Spizzirri said. “When I was in Australia, at the airport and then at home. But not a crazy amount. It’s definitely something you notice, but I don’t want to read too much into it. I’m in Dallas and I’ve played a lot of tennis in Texas, so I wasn’t surprised that there are a few Longhorns here cheering me on.”

Spizzirri showed off the Hook ’em Horns sign to the Texas fans after finishing the match, with many of those fans no doubt looking forward to his next match at the Dallas Open with college rival Jack Pinnington Jones of TCU. The pair faced off at No. 1 singles in the 2024 NCAA team finals, with Pinnington Jones winning 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 to give TCU the third point in a 4-3 victory.

Pinnington Jones, who qualified for the main draw, earned his spot in the second round with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over No. 4 seed Flavio Cobolli of Italy on Tuesday.

Quinn and Spizzirri both play at noon on Thursday, but I’ll be at media day all day for the ITA Men’s Team Indoor Championships at SMU, so I’ll follow the results from there.