Stefan Kozlov is the youngest player to compete in Valencia.
At last year’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, following a 6-3, 6-7(9), 6-4 first round victory over a 15-year-old Stefan Kozlov, 30-year-old Michal Przysiezny was left in awe of the teenager’s game: “In five or six years, he will be very good.”
Przysiezny may need to amend that prediction. The future is now.
This week, Kozlov will make his ATP World Tour 500-series debut on the indoor hard courts of the Valencia Open 500. The youngest player in tournament history, since the event relocated to Valencia from Mallorca in 2003, the American enters on the heels of a remarkable run to the final at the ATP Challenger Tour stop in Sacramento two weeks ago.
In what was his first tournament on the Challenger circuit, Kozlov survived four straight three-set matches and over nine-and-a-half hours on court entering the final. He eventually came up short of the title, falling 6-3, 6-4 to Sam Querrey, but the Floridian would vault 320 spots in the Emirates ATP Rankings to a career-high No. 443 — the youngest player in the Top 500. After succumbing to cramps in his loss to Przysiezny over 15 months prior, he admitted that his impressive show of fortitude and endurance was a testament to his dedication to constantly improving.
“I’m serving better,” Kozlov said to ATPWorldTour.com. “Every aspect of my game is better. I’m staying in matches more, competing at a high level. I can’t really point to one thing. I think my forehand is my biggest weapon. I don’t have many weaknesses and that’s also a weapon.
“I was practising well before the US Open. I was pretty happy with the way I played against Borna (Coric), but I think it could have been better. After that, I practised hard again and another big result happens. Coming into the week (in Sacramento) I was just focused on the first match. When I won my first match, I gained a lot of confidence. Then I went into the next match and the next match and I started playing really well at the end of the week."
A precocious 16 year old with the drive and talent to end the United States’ 10-year drought atop the Emirates ATP Rankings, Kozlov possesses a tennis IQ beyond his years. Born in Macedonia, he moved to the U.S. in 1999, where his father founded the Kozlov Tennis Academy in Pembroke Pines, Florida. With a strong foundation, predicated on a potent serve and two-handed backhand, the 5’10” right-hander exhibits cunning point construction and decision making around the court. It is this maturity and patience that led him to become the 10th-youngest player to reach an ATP Challenger Tour final.
Kozlov’s accolades don’t end there. He finds himself in impressive company, as the third-youngest American to advance to a Challenger title match, behind only Michael Chang and Andre Agassi. A former top-ranked junior and two-time Grand Slam finalist this year, at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, he is also the first 16 year old from the United States to crack the Top 500 since Chang achieved the feat in 1989. In Newport last year, Kozlov became just the seventh 15-under player since 1989 — and first in five years — to make his ATP World Tour debut.
Having received a wild card into the main draw, Kozlov opens his Valencia campaign against World No. 37 and two-time ATP World Tour titlist Martin Klizan on Monday. The winner awaits seventh-seed Kevin Anderson or Philipp Kohlschreiber.
“Valencia is obviously going to be tough," admits Kozlov. "It’s one of the best tournaments in the world. I’ll go into it match-by-match and see what happens. Hopefully my game comes out there. For the rest of the year, I’ll play some Futures and Challengers and see where it takes me.”
