Texas Slam 2023 Results

GEORGETOWN, Texas -- After a week of heated competition at one of the largest junior tennis tournaments in the United States, Jacob Golden of Austin and Nadia Valdez of San Antonio took the titles of 2023 Texas Slam champions in the boys’ and girls’ 18 & under divisions respectively.

Valdez, the 14-year-old No. 3 seed, knocked out the No. 5 seed, Katiana Gonzalez (Webster) 6-3, 6-0 on her way to Thursday’s girls’ 18s singles final where she defeated unseeded Stanislava Shulzhenko of Waco 7-5, 6-1.

For the boys’ 18s division, Golden, the No. 2 seed, came from behind to defeat fellow Austinite and No. 3 seed Matthew Cizmarik in the singles final 3-6, 6-3, 6-0. Golden also earned second-place honors in doubles with his partner Jack Ingram of Austin, after falling 6-7(9), 6-7(4) to Santiago Flyckt (San Antonio) and Mateo Galvez (Spring). 

Golden admitted he had high hopes coming into the tournament but was excited to actually win. 

“It feels great,” he said. “All the hard work is finally paying off and it’s great to see it finally paying off.” 

In two different singles finals, doubles partners faced off against each other:

In the girls’ 16s division, Aya Manning (Irving) defeated her doubles partner, Autumn Xu (Frisco) 6-1, 6-2. One day earlier, the pair played together to win the girls’ 16s doubles title over Sasha Miroshnichenko (Southlake) and Zimora McKnight (McKinney) 6-4, 1-6, 10-8. 

In boys’ 12s, Tristan Ascenzo (Dallas) and Sebastian Zavala (Allen) hoisted their doubles champion trophies together after defeating Rewk Nagel (San Angelo) and Andres Quijada (Dallas) 6-2, 6-0, only to face off the next day in their singles final. Ascenzo, the No. 1 seed, won 6-3, 6-1. 

No. 2 seed James Quattro of Austin, who defeated No. 1 seed Blake Anderson (Prosper) 6-4, 6-3 in the boys’ 16s singles final, was the only repeat champion for the year. In 2022, Quattro won the boys’ 14s singles title. 

Both 14s divisions were won by No. 1 Seeded Houstonians. In boys’ 14s, Dylan Varughese defeated unseeded Jose Andres Muller-Urrutia (San Antonio) 6-0, 6-2. In girls’ 14s, Kayden Johnson defeated No. 2 seeded Mildalyn D'Aguilar, also from Houston, 2-6, 6-0, 6-2.

No. 3 seed Zlata Shakhraichuk of Waco won girls’ 12s singles over Tanisha Reddy (Frisco) 6-1, 6-2. 

The Texas Slam is a USTA Level 3 Closed Junior Tournament, meaning only players residing in the boundaries of USTA Texas can compete in the event. The tournament’s history dates back to as early as 1900.