Top Seeds Broady, Kozlov Open With Wins At Calabasas


Yet another big Southern California professional tennis tournament continued on Tuesday with qualifying and five first-round matches completed at the long-standing and popular Calabasas Tennis & Swim Club $25,000 ITF World Tennis Tour event.

Top-seeded Liam Broady and No. 2 Stefan Kozlov both opened with convincing main-draw singles wins dropping of a total of five games between them. Qualifying winners on Tuesday included former UCLA star Karue Sell, and current UCLA player Keegan Smith.

Stefan Kozlov won the USC $25,000 Pro Circuit title back in 2016.

In a matchup of former college stars, former Stanford standout Tom Fawcett got past former NCAA singles champion Ryan Shane, 6-3, 7-6.

High school senior Drew Baird of IMG Academy provided the biggest shocker on the day as he eliminated former UCLA and college No. 1 Martin Redlicki, 7-6 (4) 4-6 7-6 (5).

Local tennis fans don’t want to miss out on Wednesday’s exciting action as Emilio Nava of nearby Woodland Hills will be playing in a rare “home match.” Nava is just a high school junior but has proven to be one of the nation’s top juniors have advanced to the US Open Juniors last year. Nava will play Tobias Simon of Germany at 10 a.m. Also one to watch is last year’s Easter Bowl and Kalamzaoo champion Jenson Brooksby. Brooksby, who won his first ITF title last week at Bakersfield, will face Switzerland’s Antonie Bellier in the second match on starting at 10 a.m.

In what should be a highly entertaining doubles match, Sell and former Bruin teammate Redlicki take on Broady and Kozlov, the No. 2 seeds.

If you’ve never had the opportunity to attend the Calabasas pro tournament, you are missing out. Stop in and say hello to tournament founder and chairman Steve McAvoy of Top Seed Tennis and to tournament director Jeff Richards. They do a great job.