Hardebeck, Ho Receive Top Seeds at Girls 18s and 16s Nationals; Texas Repeats as Boys 18s National Team Champions

The seeds have been announced for the the Girls 18s and 16s championships, and unlike in the Boys 18s seedings, the WTA ranking has trumped the ITF ranking with Krista Hardebeck receiving the top ranking and Taylor Townsend, No. 1 in the ITF junior rankings, getting the No. 2 seed.

Hardebeck, whose WTA ranking is 346, qualified today for the $100,000 Vancouver Pro Circuit Challenger with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Jacqueline Cako.  Other players in San Diego who have been seeded due to their WTA rankings are Samantha Crawford, Allie Kiick and Mayo Hibi, who all are inside the Top 500 WTA.  Only the top two girls in the USTA rankings--Townsend and Austin--get Top 8 seeds in San Diego, while in Kalamazoo the Top 6 in the USTA rankings are among the Top 8 seeds. 

There are many dangerous lower seeds including Jamie Loeb and Danielle Collins in the 9-16 group, and Vicky Duval, who just beat Townsend 6-1, 6-2 in Vancouver qualifying (losing to Nicole Gibbs in the final round of qualifying today), in the 17-32 group.  Dangerous unseeded floaters include wild card Hayley Carter, Lynn Chi, Sherry Li and Alyssa Smith.

In the girls 16s, Jessica Ho is the top seed, and it appears the seeding follows the national selection list, which underestimates Katerina Stewart, putting her at the No. 6 seed.  A dangerous unseeded player is Usue Arconada, a finalist this year at the ITF Grass Courts.

Girls 18s:
1. Krista Hardebeck
2. Taylor Townsend
3. Samantha Crawford
4. Alexandra Kiick
5. Mayo Hibi
6. Sachia Vickery
7. Chalena Scholl
8. Brooke Austin
9. Jamie Loeb
10. Christina Makarova
11. Kyle McPhillips
12. Jennifer Bradey
13. Gabby Andrews
14. Ashley Dai
15. Danielle Collins
16. Maegan Manasse
17. Frances Altick
17. Lexi Borr
17. Louisa Chirico
17. Caroline Doyle
17. Vicky Duval
17. Catherine Harrison
17. Liz Jeukeng
17. Zoe Katz
17. Kourtney Keegan
17. Kelsey Laurente
17. Spencer Liang
17. Madeline Lipp
17. Rachel Pierson
17. Peggy Porter
17. Jilian Rooney
17. Denise Starr

Girls 16s:
1. Jessica Ho
2. Kimberly Yee
3. Kaitlyn McCarthy
4. Ellyse Hamlin
5. Chloe Ouellet-Pizer
6. Katerina Stewart
7. Francesca Dilorenzo
8. Meredith Xepoleas
9. Caroline Lampl
10. Andie Daniell
11. Mira Ruder-Hook
12. Ndindi Ndunda
13. Amber Park
14. Olivia Sneed
15. Meghan Kelley
16. Cassandra Vazquez
17. Hadley Berg
17. Caroline Brinson
17. Sophie Chang
17. Megen Cochran
17. Luisa Fernandez
17. Terri Fleming
17. Lauren Goodman
17. Mariana Gould
17. Melissa Lord
17. Alexis Pereira
17. Annika Ringblom
17. Caroline Turner
17. Ines Vias
17. Carolyn Xie
17. Amy Yang
17. Ellie Zogg

See the TennisLink site for all the competitors.

The Boys 18s National Team title went to the Texas section for the second straight year. The No. 2 seeded Texas team defeated the fifth seeded Midwest section 4-3 to take the championship, after the Midwest won the doubles point.  Shane Vinsant and Harrison Adams defeated the Midwest's No. 1 and No. 2 singles players Jared Hiltzik and Ronnie Schneider respectively and Texas also got singles wins from Nicholas Naumann (over Paul Oosterbaan in an injury retirement) and Grant Solomon. Top seed Southern California finished fourth, losing to Eastern 4-3 today.

Today was a bit late to discover this website for the Boys National Team Championship ( a link on the TennisLink site would have been nice), but it did allow me to see the draw and get the seedings, and it has a good pdf option for easy access to complete results.

At the girls National Team Championships, the top four seeds advanced to the semifinals, and on Wednesday No. 1 Southern California will play No. 4 Eastern and No. 2 Midwest will play No. 3 Southern. The TennisLink site is here.