December Aces; B18s, G16s No. 2 Seeds Ousted at USTA Winter Nationals; Banerjee Reaches $15K Semifinal; USA Team Wins Opener at United Cup

I wrap up 2022 with my December Aces for the Tennis Recruiting Network, which features all 15 of the champions from this month's major junior events in Florida. If you were busy with holiday plans in December, this column is an ideal way to quickly catch up on all the great junior performances in those three tournaments. I also managed to squeeze three other teens into the article, and that trio will be on many lists of ones-to-watch in  2023.

The round of 16 will take place Saturday at the USTA 18s and 16s Winter National Championships in Lake Nona, without the No. 2 seeds in Boys 18s and Girls 16s.

Five-star Lucia Donnelly defeated No. 2 seed Elena Daskalova 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 in today's third round in Girls 16s, and Kalamazoo 16s semifinalist Saahith Jayaraman beat No. 2 seed Tygen Goldammer 6-4, 6-2 in the third round of Boys 18s. Jayaraman has not played much since Kalamazoo, but the 17-year-old from Northern California was obviously a dangerous floater given his performance in August.

Top boys seeds Xander Barber in the 18s and Dominick Mosejczuk in the 16s are through to the round of 16; Mosejczuk faces unseeded 14-year-old Carel Ngounoue next; ITF World Junior Tennis 14U teammate Keaton Hance, the other unseeded 14-year-old in the 16s, will play No. 2 seed Dylan Long.

The only two Top 8 seeds remaining in the Girls 16s are No. 3 seed Leena Friedman and No. 6 seed Sophia Holod. Girls 18s No. 4 seed Natasha Rajaram lost today, but No. 2 seed Esha Velaga and No. 3 seed Susanna Maltby have advanced, as have Tianmei Wang[5], Aspen Schuman[7] and Amber Yin[8].

The 12s and 14s in Tucson are still a day behind schedule, with the second round still going on this evening. According to the draws, the plan is to play two singles matches on Sunday, January 1, although, as of now, there is rain in the forecast for that day.

Stanford freshman Samir Banerjee has advanced to his first ITF World Tennis Tour men's semifinal, with the 2021 Wimbledon boys champion defeating 2022 Eddie Herr champion Arthur Gea of France 7-5, 6-0 in today's quarterfinals at the $15,000 tournament in Tunisia. The unseeded 19-year-old will face No. 2 seed Bogdan Bobrov of Russia in Saturday's semifinals.

The United States defeated the Czech Republic 4-1 in the opening United Cup match in Group C, with Taylor Fritz, Madison Keys, Frances Tiafoe getting the three necessary points in singles. The team will face Germany on Monday and will advance to the Sydney city final on Wednesday with a win. They would play the winner of Group D, which consists of Australia, Great Britain and Spain. Results can be found here.