For a tennis player rising up the ranks of junior success, airplane travel is as much a part of the regular routine as pre-match stretching and racket stringing.

Tournaments are all over the place for top young players, so of course teenage stars are always schlepping to the East Coast, the West Coast, and all locales in between.

Then there’s Trevor Svajda (above), a 17-year-old Pacific Beach kid from a great tennis family who wasn’t sure he liked this whole “tennis thing” until about 18 months ago.

A few weeks ago, Svajda flew from California to Kalamazoo, Mich. for the USTA Boys Nationals, the biggest tournament of the year for American juniors.

And it was the first time he’d ever used an airplane to get to a tournament.

Svajda and his brother Zach, 20, a two-time Boys Nationals winner and a current pro, were brought up differently than most tennis prodigies. Their father, Tom, a pro at Pacific Beach Tennis Club, believed that too much tournament play led to a lack of caring about results.

“When I was coaching young players a while back, I had a few boys who were really good and a few girls who were really good,” Tom Svajda explained. “When they played a tournament and lost, it wasn’t a big deal to them, because they knew they had another tournament coming up next week. The commitment wasn’t there.”

Clearly, the Svajda method of raising tennis players has worked because both Trevor and Zach were in the U.S. Open qualifying tournament this week at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Trevor, after a runner-up showing at Kalamazoo gained him a spot in the qualifying draw, battled veteran pro James Duckworth in the first round before falling, 7-6, 6-2.

Zach, who’s been in the main draw of the Open twice and currently is ranked No. 235, won his final round qualifying match on Saturday, Aug. 26, 6-2, 6-1, and will be in the main draw for the third time, beginning Monday o Tuesday.

“They are both such outstanding young players with so much upside, because of how great a job Tom and their coaches have done with them,” said Martin Blackman, the USTA general manager of player development. “Development is about getting better and putting the hard work in, there’s not a cookie-cutter approach for everyone. And their approach of not playing as many tournaments has definitely worked for them.”

Tom said that while Trevor looked up to his big brother growing up, he wasn’t as serious about training, and didn’t take the sport seriously even while flying to Dallas to work with coach Matt Hanlin.

Finally, last year Tom put in an ultimatum to Trevor: Are you done fooling around with video games and all that and ready to take tennis seriously?

“And like that,” Tom said, snapping his fingers, “he said ‘I’m done,’ and got serious about training.”

Trevor, who battled Duckworth in an 80-minute first set, said his first U.S. Open experience was surprising thanks to the number of fans.

“I never expected the court to be that crowded, with so many fans rooting for me,” he said. “Really just an amazing experience, that I want to have again.”

Zach turned pro in 2022 and has battled through the minor leagues of the sport this year, compiling a 26-20 overall record while improving his ranking.

He also said having his brother also playing here at the Open was a “huge moment” for his family.

“Just to share this experience with him, for our parents, is really special,” Zach said.

“It’s epic,” Trevor added.

There was a chance before the qualifying draw happened that the brothers would’ve been slated to play each other, but fortunately for the Svajdas that didn’t happen.

Trevor said “Neither of my parents would’ve come and watched if that happened,” and Tom agreed, laughing that he and his wife Anita “would sit on top of the stadium and not cheer for anyone.”

“It’s really nice as a Dad to see them enjoying this together, knowing they’ve put the work in to get here,” Tom said. “And they both seem really hungry to improve because they have a lot of upside. It’s been enjoyable to see how far they’ve come.”

Trevor Svajda photo by Mike Lawrence/USTA. Zach Svajda photo by Pete Staples/USTA.