December Aces; Wang Ousts Top Seed Smetannikov at Winter Nationals; Brady v Ahn for WTA Brisbane Main Draw; More Wild Card News

My monthly Tennis Recruiting Network article on the top performances of the previous month is early this December, with basically no tournaments being played the last week of this year.  Fourteen of the 17 players featured are the winners of the major Florida Junior tournaments; if you've been too busy with the holidays to follow junior tennis during the past five weeks, the article is a good way to catch up on the highlights quickly.  I wish I could have included 18-year-old Andreea Rosca of Romania, who is scheduled to begin her collegiate career at TCU next month.  She won two $15,000 ITF Women's Pro Circuit events in Egypt this month, but unfortunately, I don't have a photo of her. Somehow she never played a tournament I attended in her junior career.

The first No. 1 seed fell today at the USTA Winter Nationals, with Matilyn Wang, a No. 17 seed, beating girls 14s No. 1 Daria Smetannikov 7-5, 6-2 in Tucson Arizona. At the 16s and 18s in Lake Nona Florida, boys 18s No. 2 seed Bill Duo lost to Siem Woldeab, a No. 17 seed, and unseeded Kiana Rizzolo defeated girls 16s No. 2 seed Julia Andreach 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(5).  With the singles round of 16 is tomorrow in all divisions, I probably won't continue listing how all the seeds fared after tonight, but I will try to post the quarterfinal matchups.

The Tennis Recruiting Network has published their Winter National predictions; they did not see the girls 14s playing out the way it has either, but their other No. 1s are still alive.

B12s
1. Nicholas Mangiapane
2. Andrew Salu
3. Quang Duong
4. Adam Sun
5. Piotr Andrzejewski (out 3rd rd)
6. Stefan Regalia (out 3rd rd)
7. Rudy Quan
8. Alexander Frusina (out 3rd rd)
9. Kaylan Bigun
10. Humza Noor
11. Meethre Barot
12. Kai Mills
13. Lucas Coriaty (out 3rd rd)
14. Tygen Goldammer (out 2nd rd)
15. Carson Baker
16. Nicolas Trullenque (out 2nd rd)

B14s
1. Noelle Andrey Ampong
2. Max Fardanesh (out 2nd rd)
3. Samir Banerjee
4. Ozan Colak
5. Eli Gordon
6. Daniel Schmelka
7. Hudson Beaudoin (out 3rd rd)
8. Louis Cloud
9. Azuma Visaya
10. Vignesh Gogineni (out 3rd rd)
11. Benjamin Zhou
12. Kian Vakili (out 3rd rd)
13. Jiaxi Ma
14. Brian Chong
15. Phillip Deaton (out 2nd rd)
16. Kurt Miller (out 3rd rd)

B16s
1. Maxwell McKennon
2. Welsh Hotard (withdrew)
3. Spencer Brachman (out 1st rd)
4. Saiprakash Goli
5. Hunter Heck (out 2nd rd)
6. Harsh Parikh
7. Alexander Petrov
8. Keshav Chopra
9. Logan Zapp
10. Matthew Robinson (out 1st rd)
11. Aditya Gupta
12. Joshua Raab (out 2nd rd)
13. Jeremie Casabon
14. Matthew Mu (out 1st rd)
15. Daniel Sharygin (out 3rd rd)
16. Redd Owen

B18s
1. Carson Haskins
2. Bill Duo (out 3rd rd)
3. Kevin Zhu
4. Jared Pratt
5. Ryan Goetz
6. Britton Johnston (out 3rd rd)
7. Mason Meier (out 2nd rd)
8. A. Trice Pickens
9. William Peters
10. Nevin Arimilli (withdrew)
11. Daniel Pellerito (out 2nd rd)
12. Bradley Frye
13. Michael Sun
14. Marcus Ferreira
15. Patrick Maloney (out 3rd rd)
16. Christian Alshon

G12s
1. Stephanie Yakoff
2. Madeleine Jessup (out 2nd rd)
3. Brooklyn Olson
4. Elisabeth Dunac (out 1st rd)
5. Mika Ikemori
6. Sage Loudon (out 2nd rd)
7. Kinaa Graham
8. Susanna Maltby
9. Ariel Madatali
10. Theadora Rabman (out 3rd rd)
11. Emmi Kolyszko (out 2nd rd)
12. Meg McCarty (out 3rd rd)
13. Isabella Marquart (out 2nd rd)
14. Catherine Walker (out 3rd rd)
15. Isabella Chhiv
16. Anna Nguyen

G14s
1. Daria Smetannikov (out 3rd rd)
2. Elisabeth Jones
3. Liv Hovde
4. MiaAngelina Ruja (out 2nd rd)
5. Gracie Epps (out 1st rd)
6. Caroline Wernli (out 3rd rd)
7. Priya Nelson
8. Kayla Meraz (out 3rd rd)
9. Rylie Hanford (out 3rd rd)
10. Anushka Khune
11. Lauren Rha (out 1st rd)
12. Helena Huff (out 1st rd)
13. Julia DeLuca (out 1st rd)
14. Tomi Main
15. Sanjana Tallamraju (out 2nd rd)
16. Sydney Sharma

G16s
1. Gianni Pielet
2. Julia Andreach (out 3rd rd)
3. Lauren Anzalotta (out 2nd rd)
4. Anessa Lee (out 1st rd)
5. Chidimma Okpara
6. Lana Mavor (out 1st rd)
7. Maryam Ahmad (out 3rd rd)
8. Eryn Cayetano
9. Valencia Xu
10. Rosie Garcia Gross
11. Carmen Corley
12. Kiana Graham (out 1st rd)
13. Katja Wiersholm
14. Yolanda Lin (out 2nd rd)
15. Sydney Fitch (out 3rd rd)
16. Eleanor Schulson (out 3rd rd)

G18s
1. Chelsea Kung
2. Michelle Sorokko (out 1st rd)
3. Sophie Graver
4. Sonia Tartakovsky (out 2nd rd)
5. Reilly Tran
6. Alana Wolfberg
7. Anika Yarlagadda
8. Briana Crowley (out 3rd rd)
9. Kolie Allen (out 3rd rd)
10. Melissa Sakar
11. Sophia Hatton (out 2nd rd)
12. Josie Frazier (out 2nd rd)
13. Ivana Corley (out 3rd rd)
14. Emma Jackson
15. Dasha Kourkina
16. Angelica Blake

Jennifer Brady and Kristie Ahn will face off on Sunday in the final round of qualifying for the WTA tournament in Brisbane Australia, after both won second round matches Saturday. No. 8 seed Ahn defeated Priscilla Hon of Australia 6-3, 6-4 and No. 2 seed Brady beat Irina Falconi 6-1, 6-2.

The qualifying for the ATP event in Brisbane began tonight, with Ernesto Escobedo[3], Denis Kudla and Michael Mmoh the Americans in the draw.  Former USC All-American Yannick Hanfmann of Germany is the No. 2 seed.

Wild card announcements continue, with three WTA and three ATP events on the schedule for next week.  Former LSU All-American Jade Lewis, who left Baton Rouge this May after one semester, has again received a wild card into the ASB Classic in her home country of New Zealand. In this article, published last week, the 19-year-old Lewis talks about her transition to the Pro Circuit and mentions how it differs from the atmosphere at most of the lower level pro tournaments she has been playing since.  The qualifying for the ASB Classic has begun, with Jamie Loeb, Louisa Chirico, Asia Muhammad, Danielle Collins and Sachia Vickery[7] the Americans competing for a place in the main draw.

At the ATP event in Pune India, former Oklahoma State Cowboy Arjun Kadhe has been given a main draw wild card.  This article explores what Kadhe gained from his three plus years playing college tennis.