PARIS (AP) \u2014 Unsung American tennis player Zachary Svajda is just as surprised as anyone that he\u2019s into the second week at the French Open.<\/p>\n
After all, he had won only one tour-level match on clay before competing in the main draw at Roland Garros for the first time.<\/p>\n
He had never even played on a red clay court until two years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m definitely shocked,\u201d the 85th-ranked Svajda said after beating established clay-courter Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the fourth round on Saturday. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t kicked in yet. It\u2019s crazy. I\u2019m just taking it all in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I would get good on the clay. I thought maybe in a few years, but I never expected right now,\u201d added the 23-year-old Svajda, who took a set off Novak Djokovic at the U.S. Open last year.<\/p>\n
Svajda\u2019s last match before the French Open was a 6-2, 6-2 loss to 580th-ranked Max Hans Rehberg in the first round of qualifying for the Geneva Open.<\/p>\n
So when Svajda finished off the 26th-ranked Cerundolo after slightly more than three hours on Court 14, he dropped down to the clay on his back and covered his face.<\/p>\n
In October, Svajda\u2019s father and coach, Tom Svajda, died of cancer. Saturday was his dad\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe emotions were insane. When I fell to the ground, it was just so special. \u2026 I know he\u2019s proud of me,\u201d Svajda said of his father, who was a teaching pro at Pacific Beach Tennis Club in San Diego.<\/p>\n
After winning the opening two sets, Svajda\u2019s legs started cramping as the temperatures in Paris again soared above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius).<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to show it too much, so I just tried to shorten the points a little bit more. He started to up his game, play well,\u201d Svajda said. \u201cWhen I lost the third and fourth, I told myself, \u2019Just keep trusting, keep believing, and you never know what could happen.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was great atmosphere out there. The crowd really helped me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Svajda\u2019s previous best Grand Slam result was reaching the second round of the 2021 U.S. Open. He next faces 14th-ranked Flavio Cobolli for a spot in the quarterfinals after the Italian eliminated American player Learner Tien 6-2, 6-2, 6-3.<\/p>\n
Svajda has been celebrating his run in Paris in French style, posting a photo of himself on TikTok wearing a beret and holding a giant croissant.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so much fun,\u201d he said. \u201cThat one is going viral.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/p>\n
Andrew Dampf, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS (AP) \u2014 Unsung American tennis player Zachary Svajda is just as surprised as anyone that he\u2019s into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-704323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}