Stammel Captures G18s Clay Court Championship, Heng Wins B18s; First ATP Titles for Cressy and Cerundolo; Han, Seelig, Navarro Claim Pro Circuit Titles

Rain is always part of the story when it comes to the USTA Clay Court Championships, but all twelve of the gold balls scheduled to be awarded today were distributed, despite several lengthy weather delays. 

Bridget Stammel, G18s USTA Clay Court Champion

Bridget Stammel earned her first gold ball in singles at the Girls 18s in Mount Pleasant South Carolina, defeating 14-year-old Shannon Lam 6-4, 6-2, but the final was hardly as straightforward as the score might suggest.

For Stammel, the No. 16 seed, the rain interruption came at an inopportune time.

"In the first set I was actually down 4-2, then went up 6-4, 2-1, and then we had the rain delay," said the 18-year-old from Dallas Texas. "I had won like six of the last seven games or something like that, so definitely the momentum was with me. It was a pretty long rain delay, three or four hours, so definitely I could feel the nerves."

Stammel didn't miss a beat when play resumed, building a 5-2 lead, but she needed eight match points before she final shut the door on Lam, a No. 17 seed.

"I was up 40-0 in that game and the game just kept going, her ad, my ad, back and forth for a long time," said Stammel, who won a gold ball in doubles at the 2019 Winter Nationals. "I've never won a singles gold ball before and it's always been a goal of mine, so I was really happy and proud of myself."

Stammel admitted that playing against a 14-year-old created extra stress.

"I thought she was really mature, she acted pretty professional for as young as she was, but I kind of felt the pressure the whole tournament, because I'm definitely one of the older ones here," said Stammel, who turns 19 in October. "I used to be the young, getting to play those older and that's definitely easier, because you pretty much have nothing to lose. But I was just happy with myself that I was able to stay focused and not let the pressure get to me too much."

After her victory today, Stammel was awarded a wild card into the $25,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Dallas, which begins on July 25th. She is playing the USTA National Championships in San Diego, then starts classes at Vanderbilt in late August.

In the Girls 18s doubles final, top seeds Natalie Block and Piper Charney defeated No. 2 seeds Vivian Miller and Maddy Zampardo 7-5, 7-5.

After losing in the final last year to Ryan Colby, Nicholas Heng took the next step at this year's B18s Clay Courts in Delay Beach Florida, with the No. 4 seed defeating No. 2 seed Jelani Sarr 6-4, 6-3. 

Although the 18s Clay Court singles champions receive a main draw wild card to the US Open Junior Championships, neither Stammel or Heng are age eligible by ITF rules, with both turning 19 this year.

In the boys 18s doubles final, No. 7 seeds Nikita Filin and Alexander Razeghi defeated top seeds Lucas Brown and Landon Ardila 6-3, 5-7, 10-5. Filin and Razeghi beat the top 3 seeds, with their last four wins this week coming in match tiebreakers. Normally, the semifinals and finals of a Level 1 are not decided in match tiebreakers, but the rain forced a format change.

At the Girls 16s in Huntsville Alabama, top seed Natasha Rajaram defeated unseeded Katie Spencer 6-3, 6-2 in the singles final. No. 4 seeds Kayla Chung and Alanis Hamilton won the doubles title, beating top seeds Saray Yli-Piipari and Kayla Schfke 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4.

At the B16s in Delray Beach Florida, Stiles Brockett won the battle of 17 seeds in the singles final, beating Mikel Anderson 6-1 6-3. In the doubles final, No. 15 seeds Krish Gupta and Evan Burnett defeated No. 7 seeds Nicholas Snyder and Cole Henceroth 6-4, 6-1.

No. 5 seed Julieta Pareja won the G14s singles title in Plantation Florida, defeating top seed Aishi Bisht 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-1 in the final. Top seeds Sara Shumate and Bella Payne won the doubles title, beating No. 11 seeds Georgia Kulevich and Zosia Henryson-Gibbs 6-4, 6-0 in the final. 

Jack Kennedy swept the titles at the B14s in Dothan Alabama. Seeded No. 17 in singles, Kennedy defeated No. 6 seed Gus Grumet 6-2, 6-4 in the championship match. In the doubles final, Kennedy and Sebastian Bielen, the No. 6 seeds, defeated No. 3 seeds Yannik Alvarez and Ryan Cozad 6-3, 6-3.

The 12s titles were decided earlier this weekend.  No. 3 seed Jordan Lee defeated No. 4 seed Vihaan Reddy 6-1, 6-3 in singles and top seeds Akshay Mirmira and Safir Azam defeated No. 6 seeds Diego Custodio and Daniel Patsula 6-0, 6-1 in doubles at the B12s in Lake Nona.

At the G12s in Boca Raton, No. 7 seed Hanna Ayrault beat No. 2 seed Welles Newman 6-3, 6-3 in the singles final, with top seeds Shaya Jovanovic and Daniela Navarro defeating No. 5 seeds Madeleine Bridges and Reiley Rhodes 7-5, 5-2 for the doubles title.

It was a banner day for college tennis today, with three ATP 250 titles and a host of others around the world. At the Hall of Fame Open in Newport Rhode Island, No. 4 seed Maxime Cressy(UCLA) came from 6-3, 2-0 down to defeat No. 3 seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) and earn his first ATP title in his third final, all this year. Cressy, who was outside the ATP Top 100 at this time last year, will move to a career-high of 33 in Monday's rankings. For more on the final, see this article from the ATP website.

The Newport men's doubles title also went to former collegians, with No. 4 seeds Will Blumberg(North Carolina) and Steve Johnson(USC) defeating top seeds Raven Klaasen of South Africa and Marcelo Melo of Brazil 6-4, 7-5. It's the second ATP doubles title for both Blumberg and Johnson, with Blumberg winning Newport last year with Jack Sock and Johnson earning his title with Sam Querrey in Geneva in 2016.

Argentina's Francisco Cerundolo, who played one semester at South Carolina, won his first ATP title at the Nordea Open in Bastad Sweden. The unseeded Cerundolo, who beat top seed Casper Ruud in the second round, defeated No. 8 seed Sebastian Baez of Argentina 7-6(4), 6-2 in the final. Cerundolo, who started the year ranked 127, will move to a career-high of 30 in Monday's ATP rankings.

2022 NCAA singles champion Ben Shelton(Florida) fell short in his bid for a first ATP Challenger title, falling to Yu Wibing of China 7-5, 6-3 in the championships match today in Rome Georgia. Both are playing the ATP Challenger in Indianapolis next week, each getting a special exemption into the main draw. Local junior Nishesh Basavareddy received a main draw wild card and will play top seed and ATP 91 Peter Gojowczyk of Germany in the first round.

2021 NCAA singles champion Emma Navarro won her first title since turning pro last month. A week after reaching the finals of a $60,000 tournament in the Netherlands, Navarro won the championship at a $60,000 ITF World Tennis Tour women's tournament in Latvia. The former Virginia Cavalier, seeded No. 5, defeated No. 2 seed Yue Yuan of China 6-4, 6-4 and will move to 155 in Monday's WTA rankings.

USC's redshirt sophomore Snow Han won her second Pro circuit title today at the $15,000 tournament in Lakewood California, the last of the six tournaments on the SoCal Pro Circuit. No. 5 seed Han, a 20-year-old from China, defeated top seed Dabin Kim of Korea 7-5, 7-5 in the final.

No. 3 seed Jaimee Floyd Angele of France took the men's title in Lakewood, defeating No. 4 seed Nathan Ponwith(Arizona State) 6-2, 7-5. 

For more on today's finals, see this article from USTA SoCal press aide Steve Pratt.

At the $15,000 USTA men's Pro Circuit tournament in Pittsburgh, top seed Kyle Seelig(Ohio State) won his second pro title, defeating No. 7 seed AJ Catanzariti 6-4, 6-3 in the championship match.