EDWARDSVILLE - Kyle Kang, a sophomore at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., finished second in the $25,000 Edwardsville Futures tennis tournament, presented by The EGHM Foundation, Aug. 4 at the Edwardsville Tennis Center, losing to Gavin Young 6-4, 6-3, but still had a great week playing in Edwardsville.
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Kang, a resident of Pleasanton, Calif., pulled off major wins, taking the quarterfinal match over Michael Zheng in a three-set thriller, before defeating second seed Colin Sinclair in three sets in the semifinal match the day before, moving on to the final, and doing it all as a wild card entrant.
In the final, Kang dropped a service break to Young in the opening game, and couldn't recover, then lost another service break at 3-2 in the second set, and again couldn't recover as Young went on to the win. It was still a very good week for Kang, and he talked about it during his post-match interview.
"A little tired," Kang said. "I mean, it was a long week, for sure, but I'm feeling good overall. I'm pretty proud of myself this week, just battling through the heat, and just had a lot of fun."
Getting to the final was a great accomplishment for Kang, going through a very talented field to make it to the final, knocking out Sinclair along the way.
"Yeah, that was a good win," Kang said. "I had a couple of long matches before that, I had a pretty long battle against Michael the day before, but I"m really happy to get those two wins."
Kang's overall experiences in the tournament were very positive and upbeat, indeed.
"It was good," Kang said. "Making the final is always a good experience, just for confidence overall, just without playing my game. So, I think making the final's always a good feeling, and I'll take a lot from it."
It wasn't the first time Kang had played at Edwardsville, but has nothing but great things to say about his time playing at the Futures.
"I've played here the past two years, as well," Kang said, "and every time I'm here, it's always great. The community's great, everybody shows up to support the players, which is always fun. I always enjoy my time here."
Another tournament awaits Kang, the Southaven, Miss., Open, where he's set to face Ryan Fishback, another competitor in the Futures, in the opening round of the main draw, then will be starting his junior season at Stanford.
"I'm heading down to Southaven," Kang said, "for another $25K next week. It's supposed to start today, but I think I'll get a Wednesday start there, hopefully. So, we'll see how it goes."
And Kang also feels good about his future success in tennis as well.
"Yeah, I feel pretty good," Kang said "Just taking it one day at a time."
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