San Diego and Kalamazoo USTA Nationals Wild Cards; USTA's Jackson Takes Over at Princeton; Quevedo Extends Winning Streak with J2 Title; Murthy Claims J3 in Dominican Republic

Wild cards have been selected for the upcoming USTA 16s and 18s Nationals. Wimbledon girls champion Liv Hovde has apparently changed her mind about playing after she confirmed she would when I asked her about it at Wimbledon; Sonya Macavei is also a notable top ITF player that isn't competing. The complete list of entrants for the girls is here and the boys is here.

G18s:
Rachel Gailis

Katherine Hui
Luciana Perry
Akasha Urhobo
Emma Sun
Rebecca Lynn
Sankavi Gownder

G16s:

Emily Baek

Maya Iyengar

Sophie Suh

Sophia Yang

B18s:

Braden Shick

Jonah Braswell

Sean Daryabiegi

Rohan Murali

Bryce Nakashima

Joseph Phillips

Dylan Charlap

Eli Stephenson

B16s:

Darwin Blanch

Maximus Dussault

Joseph Oyebog

Rohan Belday

Lachlan Gaskell

Nicolas Iantosca

Paris Pouatcha

Dominick Mosejczuk

Jamea Jackson, a USTA National Coach for the past nine years, has been named the new women's head coach at Princeton, succeeding Laura Granville, who resigned for personal reasons last month. Jackson, who was the assistant women's coach at Oklahoma State prior to joining the USTA, worked primarily with junior girls in Boca Raton and Lake Nona. With her background in professional tennis, Jackson had a full array of development experience to draw on, and I know she'll be missed at the USTA and will be difficult to replace. It will be great to continue seeing her on the recruiting trail however, and comforting to know she is staying in the coaching profession. Today's release on her hiring, containing glowing remarks from her colleagues, is here.

On the ITF Junior Circuit last week, Americans won seven titles, with Kaitlin Quevedo capturing her second straight singles championship this week at the J2 in Colombia. After taking the J3 in Medellin last week, the 16-year-old won six more matches this week in Bogota, with the No. 1 seed beating unseeded Antonia Vergara Rivera of Chile 6-1, 7-6(7) in the final. Quevedo, who has lost only one set in her 11 consecutive victories, is now up to 55 in the ITF junior rankings.

Valeria Ray won the doubles title in Bogota, with Cindy Zhao of China. Ray and Zhao, the No. 2 seeds, defeated top seeds Quevedo and Ashton Bowers 6-4, 6-7(3), 10-2 in the final.

Sixteen-year-old Anya Murthy won her second ITF junior circuit singles title at the Grade 3 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Seeded No. 3, Murthy defeated her doubles partner, unseeded Brooklyn Olson, 6-2, 6-1 in the all-American final. 

Preston Stearns won the Santo Domingo boys doubles title, with China's Yi Zhou. The top seeds defeated No. 2 seeds Jules Leroux of France and Jack Loge of Belgium 6-2, 6-4 in the final.

The other three titles came at the Grade 5 in Kingston Jamaica. Seventeen-year-old Esunge Ndumbe had never won a main draw match in ITF Junior Circuit play prior to this week, but he won five matches to take the boys singles title. He defeated No. 7 seed Dominick Mosejczuk 1-6, 6-4, 6-0 in another all-USA final.

The boys doubles championship was also decided between Americans, with No. 3 seeds Nicolas Iantosca and Mosejczuk defeating No. 2 seeds Malik Trail and Yubel Ubri 7-5, 6-1. It's the first ITF junior circuit title for the 15-year-olds.

The girls doubles title went to No. 4 seeds Sanjana Devineni and Great Britain's Athina Schlepphorst, who defeated No. 3 seeds Kayla Moore and Jamaica's Alyssa James 7-5, 6-3 in the final. It's the first ITF junior circuit title for the 15-year-old Devineni.