USTA Winter Nationals Begin Tuesday in Arizona; UVA's Kwiatkowski Wins First Futures Singles Title

This is the International Tennis Federation junior circuit's third and final week of its off-season, with qualifying for the Costa Rica Bowl, the first Grade 1 of 2017, beginning on Saturday.

For those 12- and 14-year-olds who played in the Junior Orange Bowl and are entered in the USTA Winter Nationals, the break was considerably shorter, with just one week between them.  The Winter Nationals begin Tuesday in Tucson for the 12s and 14s and in Scottsdale for the 16s and 18s.  The Top 8 seeds in all eight divisions are below:

USTA Winter Nationals Top 8 Seeds:

B12s
1. Jackson Armistead
2. Cooper Williams
3. Lucas Brown
4. Phillip Dell
5. Jelani Sarr
6. Cole Stelse
7. Learner Tien
8. Will Mayew

B14s
1. Maxwell McKennon
2. Aryan Chaudhary
3. Matthew Robinson
4. Alex Lin
5. Peter Murphy
6. Sam Feldman
7. Filipe Costa
8. Baylor Sai

B16s:
1. Brandon Nakashima
2. Cannon Kingsley
3. Andrew Dale
4. Robert Cashe
5. Siem Woldeab
6. Ryder Jackson
7. Jacob Bullard
8. Nathan Han

B18s:
1. Alexander Brown
2. Richard Ciamarra
3. Mason Beiler
4. Maxwell Freeman
5. Christian Alshon
6. Ryan Seggerman
7. Robert Maciag
8. Matthew Lord

G12s
1. Vivian Ovrootsky
2. Matilyn Wang
3. Tsehay Driscoll
4. Meera Jesudason
5. Gracie Epps
6. Liv Hovde
7. Phoebe Peus
8. Stephanie Yakoff

G14s
1. Gianna Pielet
2. Ava Catanzarite
3. Muskan Mahajan
4. Kylie Collins
5. Jenna DeFalco
6. Neha Velaga
7. Jennifer Kida
8. India Houghton

G16s
1. Angelica Blake
2. Briana Crowley
3. Sedona Gallagher
4. Dasha Kourkina
5. Lauren Stein
6. Ashley Yeah
7. Niluka Madurawe
8. Jayci Goldsmith

G18s
1. Hannah Zhao
2. Samantha Martinelli
3. Janice Shin
4. Elysia Bolton
5. Anika Yarlagadda
6. Abigail Forbes
7. Sara Choy
8. Chelsea Kung

For a list of those who won Winter National singles gold balls last year, many of whom are moving up a division this year, scroll down to the bottom of the 2016 Honor Roll on the left.

One of the few ITF Pro Circuit events last week was the $10,000 Futures in Puerto Rico, where University of Virginia senior Thai Kwiatkowski picked up his first pro circuit singles title.  The 21-year-old from North Carolina, seeded sixth, defeated former UNC Tar Heel Brayden Schnur of Canada, the No. 4 seed, 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 in the semifinals and No. 7 seed Alexios Halebian 6-1, 6-4 in the final. Halebian had beaten top seed Evan King in the quarterfinals and No. 3 seed Benjamin Lock of Zimbabwe in the semifinals.

Kwiatkowski, who has won two Futures doubles titles, both this year, also reached the final in doubles, with Quinton Vega as his partner. The No. 3 seeds lost to top seeds Nebojsa Pric and Ilija Vucic of Serbia 6-1, 6-3 in the championship match.

Qualifying for the first 2017 USTA Pro Circuit event, the $25,000 men's Futures at USC's Marks Tennis Center, begins on Saturday.