Day Top Seed at San Diego Girls Nationals; Southern Cal Repeats as Champions at USTA National Boys 18s Team Tournament; Pro Circuit Update; Kratzer Wins First WTA Match

The seeds have been posted for the Girls 16s and 18s USTA National Championships in San Diego, with the top 16 in each age division listed below:

Girls 18s:
1. Kayla Day
2. Whitney Osuigwe
3. Coco Gauff
4. Salma Ewing
5. Caty McNally
6. Alexa Noel
7. Hailey Baptiste
8. Lea Ma
9. Katie Volynets
10. Dalayna Hewitt
11. Gabby Price
12. Natasha Subhash
13. Elli Mandlik
14. Peyton Stearns
15. Hurricane Tyra Black
16. Kacie Harvey

Elysia Bolton, who just won the $15K in Evansville Indiana is a 17-32 seed, as is Clay Court champion Emma Navarro. Connie Ma, who reached the Evansville final, is in the 33-64 seeding group.  None of the 18s wild cards--Alexandra Yepifanova, Marlee Zein, Alexa Ryngler, Alana Smith, Chidimma Okpara, Michelle Xu, Anessa Lee and Najah Dawson--are seeded, nor are Ellie Douglas, a former Top 20 ITF junior who has only played two tournaments this year and Taylor Johnson, a former Top 10 ITF junior, who won the Southern Cal sectional in June after returning from a long injury layoff.

Girls 16s:
1. Gianna Pielet
2. Valencia Xu
3. Fiona Crawley
4. Allura Zamarripa
5. Madison Sieg
6. India Houghton
7. Rosie Garcia Gross
8. Hibah Shaikh
9. Amber Lee
10. Ava Catanzarite
11. Leyden Games
12. Maryam Ahmad
13. Rachel Arbitman
14. Jenna Thompson
15. Kylie Collins
16. Lauren Anzalotta

The complete list of all 64 seeds can be found here.

Southern Cal once again claimed the USTA's Boys 18s National Team title in Champaign Illinois, with the top seeds defeating No. 3 seed Texas 5-2 in the final. I took a screen shot of the final this afternoon, which obviously isn't complete, with a singles and a doubles match missing, but the results from the final match are currently not available on the Tennis Link site. The Midwest section finished third, beating Eastern 5-2. The draw is available here.

Southern Cal, which also won the title last year, had the advantage of two players, Timothy Sah and Ryan Seggerman, both of whom were on college teams last season, not reaching their 19th birthdays until August. This means, although they cannot play Kalamazoo again, they were age eligible for the July team competition. Siem Woldeab, who is the No. 7 seed in Kalamazoo, played No. 1 for the Southern Cal section.

Congrats to incoming freshman Eric Hahn and Matthew Tsolakyan on winning the USTA Boys' 18 National Team Championship for team Southern California! pic.twitter.com/SaYybjzFZB

— UCLA Men's Tennis (@uclatennis) July 31, 2018 

The weather in central Illinois has not been good for the past few days, with National Team matches played indoors in Champaign and disruptions in the schedule for the $25,000 Futures in Decatur this week.  Usually qualifying for Futures tournaments is completed on Monday, but those extended into Tuesday, not an ideal scenario for the several Kalamazoo participants playing there.  Kalamazoo's No. 4 seed Jenson Brooksby received a wild card and was to play Trent Bryde today, but that match is no longer on the schedule for today.  Govind Nanda, the No. 14 seed in Kalamazoo, won his final round qualifying match tonight to advance to the main draw, while Zane Khan, the No. 4 seed in the 16s, lost his final round qualifying match.

Liam Caruana of Italy is the top seed, with Wake Forest's Petros Chrysochos of Cyprus seeded No. 2.

The $75,000 ATP Challenger in Lexington Kentucky has also been experiencing some rain delays, but three Americans have advanced to the second round.  Wild card Collin Altamirano defeated Hugo Grenier of France 6-7(4), 7-6(2), 6-4 yesterday, with Ronnie Schneider, who got into the main draw as a lucky loser, advancing today with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands.  Ohio State rising junior JJ Wolf, who qualified, picked up his biggest win by ranking in today's first round, beating No. 315 Dan Evans of Great Britain 6-0, 7-6(5). Evans, who was once ranked 41 in the ATP rankings, saw his ranking fall after a year's suspension for recreational drug use.

The women also have two tournaments this week, with qualifying at the $25,000 event in Fort Worth Texas and the $60,000 event in Lexington Kentucky completed today.

Americans qualifying in Fort Worth are Alexa Graham(UNC), Kelly Chen(Duke), Lauren Proctor(Winthrop), McCartney Kessler(Florida), Rhiann Newborn(Baylor) and 16-year-old Alexa Ryngler. Usue Arconada is the top seed, with wild cards going to Lea Ma, Savannah Broadus, Hurricane Tyra Black, and Ellie Douglas, all of whom are playing San Diego this weekend.

There are only four qualifiers in Lexington, with Sanaz Marand(UNC), Kennedy Shaffer(Georgia) and Anastasia Nefadova the Americans advancing to the main draw. Wild cards went to Quinn Gleason(Notre Dame), Ann Li(LSU), Peyton Stearns and Jennifer Elie. Gleason and Li won their first round matches today. Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands is the top seed.

At the WTA Premier tournament this week in San Jose, 2017 USTA National 18s champion Ashley Kratzer, a wild card, picked up her first WTA victory, beating Alison Riske 6-4, 4-6, 7-5.  Danielle Collins and Sonya Kenin have also advanced to the second round.