Top 16s Seed Nisbet, 18s No. 2 Seed Velaga Lose at USTA Winter Nationals; Live Streaming Available at First Tennis Europe Super Category 14U Event in Moscow

Although the 16s are still a round behind, the USTA Winter Nationals in Lake Nona completed a lot of matches today, although formats were changed in order to accommodate the schedule. Doubles were shortened to 4 game sets and a match tiebreaker, while in singles, tiebreakers were played in lieu of a full three sets. In girls 16s action, top seed Aubrey Nisbet, the reigning 16s USTA Clay Courts champion, lost to Eileen Wang 6-2, 1-6, 10-6 in the second round, and in the third round of the girls 18s, No. 2 seed Neha Velaga lost to Ellie Pittman 6-2, 7-5.  Below is a quick rundown of the top 8 seeds and how they've fared in the last three days. The boys 12s is the only draw that has yet to lose a Top 8 seed.

Standard scoring is scheduled to return for play tomorrow in Lake Nona; the 12s and 14s divisions at the Winter Nationals in Tucson have not had to shorten their scoring and will all be playing the singles round of 16 Tuesday.

Girls 18s Top 8 seeds:
1. Sarah Hamner
2. Neha Velaga (out rd 3)
3. Julia Fliegner (out rd 1)
4. Gianna Pielet
5. Emma Staker
6. Brooke Killingsworth
7. Kathryn Treiber (out rd 3)
8. Allie Gretkowski

Boys 18s Top 8 seeds:
1. Logan Zapp
2. Leighton Allen
3. Welsh Hotard
4. Benjamin Koch
5. Ayran Chaudhary (out rd 3)
6. Thomas Paulsell
7. Coy Simon
8. Ben Shelton

Girls 16s Top 8 seeds:
1. Aubrey Nisbet (out rd 2)
2. Katie Codd
3. Ria Bhakta (out rd 1)
4. Kida Ferrari
5. Stephanie Yakoff
6. Anna Neyestani (out rd 1)
7. Vivian Miller (out rd 2)
8. Ann Guerry

Boys 16s Seeds
1. Louis Cloud
2. Daniel Schmelka
3. Michael Zheng
4. Walker Oberg (out rd 1)
5. Kurt Miller
6. Ethan Quinn
7. Sebastian Gorzny (out rd 1)
8. Lucas Brown

Girls 14s Top 8 Seeds:
1. Kinaa Graham (out rd 2)
2. Alexia Harmon
3. Susanna Maltby
4. Meg McCarty (out rd 2)
5. Sage Loudon
6. Victoria Zhao
7. Amber Yin (out rd 3)
8. Nina Wiese

Boys 14s Top 8 Seeds:
1. Carson Baker
2. Alexander Frusina
3. Lucas Coriaty
4. Adam Sun
5. Quang Duong (out rd 3)
6. Cooper Woestendick (out rd 3)
7. Soham Purohit (out rd 2)
8. Mason Nguyen

Girls 12s Top 8 seeds:
1. Mia Yamakita
2. Alexis Nguyen
3. Eleana Zhao
4. Kirsten Woods (out 2nd rd)
5. Maya Iyengar
6. Sabrina Lin
7. Sara Shumate
8. Elizabeth Fauchet

Boys 12s Top 8 seeds:
1. Jagger Leach
2. Roman Sancilio
3. Dominick Mosejczuk
4. Gray Kelley
5. Ford McCollum
6. Nav Dayal
7. Lachlan Gaskell
8. Andrew Li

Today marked the beginning of Tennis Europe's Christmas Cup in Russia, a prestigious 14U event that is the first Super Category tournament to be played under the new designation.

Back in October, Tennis Europe announced that five 14U events would be designated Super Category, and the requirements for that designation include full hospitality, chair umpires from the first main draw match and live streaming and live scoring. I haven't found the live scoring, but the live streaming is at this YouTube channel. 

The other four tournaments named Super Category are:

Les Petits As, Tarbes (FRA) - week of 27th January

Kungens Kanna & Drottningens Pris, Stockholm (SWE) - week of 24th February

XXVII Taça Internacional Maia (POR) - week of 30th March

43 Internationale Deutsche Tennismeisterschaften Dueren (GER) - week of 27th July

Although Les Petits As has always been on the forefront of junior tennis tournament innovation, adding a circuit like this raises the bar substantially for those hosting major international competitions. The two major 14U events in North America that I just covered, the Eddie Herr and Junior Orange Bowl, have no chair umpires until the semifinals or finals, no live streaming or scoring and no hospitality, so it's hard not to view them as falling behind their European counterparts.

Tennis Europe is also introducing reserved spots for 15 and 16-year-olds in ITF junior events based on their Tennis Europe ranking. For more on these 2020 changes, see this article.