![\"Elvina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SUT-L-tennis-0202-01.jpg\")
Elvina Kalieva plays during Saturday\u2019s Better Buzz Coffee San Diego Open final. (San Diego Open)<\/p>\nIn his first month of play since the passing of his father and tennis mentor, Zach Svajda put together a performance that would have made his dad proud.<\/p>\n
The San Diegan upset top-seeded Sebastian Korda 6-4, 7-6(5) for the men\u2019s singles championship of the ATP Challenger 100 portion of the Better Buzz Coffee San Diego Open at the Barnes Tennis Center.\u00a0\u00a0The Open simultaneously included a women\u2019s field for the first time in the form of the ITF Women\u2019s 100.<\/p>\n
Tom Svajda, who coached at the Pacific Beach Tennis Club for more than two decades, died Oct. 12 at age 60 due to cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s on my mind all the time,\u201d said the fourth-seeded Svajda, who began the year by reaching the first round of the Australian Open through qualifying. \u201cAlso, especially being here in San Diego, with the hometown crowd, was nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were no service breaks in the second set. In the tiebreaker, Svajda took advantage of two unforced errors and a service winner to take a 6-3 lead and ultimately prevailed on his second ace of the match for his seventh Challenger title.<\/p>\n
The 5-foot-9 righthander who wears his cap backward displayed a repertoire including drop shots and slices to counter the power of the 6-3 Korda in the tight match.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just tried to stay as locked as possible,\u201d said Svajda, 23, ranked No. 142. \u201cIn the tiebreaker, I looked to serve a little bigger, and then I aced him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Svajda claimed the $25,000 winner\u2019s share of the $177,000 tournament purse in his first meeting against Korda, 25, of Bradenton, Fla.<\/p>\n
Korda had a career-high No. 15 ranking in 2024 but slipped to No. 53 while recovering from a stress fracture in his right shin. His father, Petr, rose to No. 2 in 1998.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got a lot of confidence from this win, for sure,\u201d said Svajda, who fell in the first round of this tourney a year ago. \u201cSo I\u2019ll keep working hard and just keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elvina Kalieva plays during Saturday\u2019s Better Buzz Coffee San Diego Open final. (San Diego Open)<\/p>\n
In the women\u2019s final, fifth-seeded Elvina Kalieva, a Brooklyn native, prevailed 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 over No. 2 Elizabeth Mandlik in a match that was more colorful than consistent in quality between players who last had career-high rankings two years ago.<\/p>\n
Matters reached a turning point in the second set, when Mandlik had a drop shot ruled out despite appearing to most all to be just inside the sideline before spinning out.<\/p>\n
Out of challenges at that point, she instead addressed the chair umpire.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re a joke. You\u2019re a joke,\u201d said Mandlik, 24, of Boca Raton, Fla., ranked No. 182. \u201cThat\u2019s all I\u2019m going to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kalieva took the next two points for a service break that increased her lead to 5-3. A few points later, when Kalievea\u2019s serve was ruled out, Mandlik sarcastically shouted, \u201cNo, it\u2019s good,\u201d drawing chuckles from the crowd.<\/p>\n
Mandlik finished the match 0-for-8 on challenges. The only successful challenge went Kalievea\u2019s way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe calls were both ways. So it was far,\u201d said Kalieva, 22, ranked No. 204. I just tried to stay focused. That\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mandlik, the daughter of tennis icon Hana Mandlikova, had 11 service winners and two aces in the first set, but then struggled on service. To close the match, she lost service on straight points.<\/p>\n
Kalieva otherwise took charge in the third set with an increased all-court game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like that I found a way to win,\u201d said Kalieva, who earned $15,000 from a $100,000 purse. \u00a0\u201cIn the beginning, it was a rocky start.\u201d<\/p>\n
The women\u2019s bracket included three local players who each lost in the first round \u2014 Carlsbad\u2019s Julieta Pareja and San Diego\u2019s Haley Giavara and Katerine Hui. Svajda\u2019s younger brother, Trevor, a junior at SMU, also fell in the opening round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his first month of play since the passing of his father and tennis mentor, Zach Svajda put…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,74,76,75,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-159760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-san-diego","10":"tag-san-diego-headlines","11":"tag-san-diego-news","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}