Seeds Fall in First Round of USTA Winter Nationals; Zhao Feature; Shapovalov Named Top Canadian Male Athlete; Kenin Among WTA Wild Card Recipients

The No. 1 seeds all survived the first day of the USTA Winter Nationals in Lake Nona and Tucson, but many top 16 seeds fell in their opening matches Wednesday.  G18s No. 2 seed Michelle Sorokko lost to Yekaterina Alferova 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-2 and B16s No. 3 seed Spencer Brachman was beaten by Luis Iriarte Bastidas 1-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(5). Welsh Hotard, the No. 2 seed in the B16s, was replaced at the bottom of the draw by alternate Braeden Ho.  Although not all results have been posted, especially at the 12s and 14s in Arizona, I've noted in the lists below which top 16 seeds went out in the opening round today.  Playsight streaming is available on many courts at Lake Nona, but with no chair umpires and no scoring devices visible, it can be difficult to follow a match.

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

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

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

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

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

G14s
1. Daria Smetannikov
2. Elisabeth Jones
3. Liv Hovde
4. MiaAngelina Ruja
5. Gracie Epps (out 1st rd)
6. Caroline Wernli
7. Priya Nelson
8. Kayla Meraz
9. Rylie Hanford
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
16. Sydney Sharma

G16s
1. Gianni Pielet
2. Julia Andreach
3. Lauren Anzalotta
4. Anessa Lee (out 1st rd)
5. Chidimma Okpara
6. Lana Mavor (out 1st rd)
7. Maryam Ahmad
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
15. Sydney Fitch
16. Eleanor Schulson

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

The WTA has published a lengthy feature in their Scouting Reports series about 2015 NCAA singles finalist Carol Zhao of Canada.  Zhao, who left Stanford after her junior year to turn pro, discusses her difficult adjustment to the pro circuit, why she chose to attend Stanford, her goals for 2018, her musical talent and many other topics.

Shapovalov won the Wimbledon Boys title in 2016

The Canadian Press has chosen 18-year-old Denis Shapovalov as its Male Athlete of the Year for 2017. The 2016 Wimbledon boys champion has made huge strides on the ATP tour this year, going from around 250 to 50 in the rankings and earning wins over Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin Del Potro at the Rogers Cup this summer.  Although Milos Raonic has won the award in past years, it's notable when tennis gets the better of hockey in Canada; Shapovalov got one more vote than Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who defended their Stanley Cup.

Several more wild cards have been announced for the upcoming WTA tournaments prior to next month's Australian Open.  American Sonya Kenin, who recently turned 19, has received a main draw wild card into the ASB Classic in New Zealand, according to this article on the tournament's website. Seventeen-year-old Destanee Aiava and Ajla Tomljanovic have received wild cards in to the Brisbane tournament, which begins December 31st. And 18-year-old Jaimee Fourlis, who has an Australian Open main draw wild card ahead of her for winning the Australian 18s Nationals, has received a wild card into the Hobart International.