Update on Second Round of 16s and 18s USTA Winter Nationals; Banerjee Reaches $15K Quarterfinals; Record Number of Juniors Compete on 2022 ITF Circuit; Cash and Patten Head to ATP Tour

The second round of the USTA 16s and 18s Winter Nationals in Lake Nona Florida is complete, but rain in Tucson Arizona yesterday disrupted the first round for the 12s and 14s and, while the 12s finished their first round matches today, as of now, the 14s have not.

Below is the status of the seeds in the 16s and 18s:

Boys 16s:
1. Dominick Mosejczuk
2. Dylan Long
3. Brody Nejedly Krall
4. Braeden Gelletich (out rd 1)
5. Nicholas Patrick (out rd 2)
6. Maxim Kalinin (out rd 2)
7. Nolan Balthazor (out rd 1)
8. Noah Johnston
9. Cal Riggs (out rd 1)
10. Nathan Gold
11. Benjamin Saltman (out rd 2)
12. Cooper Han
13. Mitchell Sheldon
14. Evan Burnett
15. Winston Lee
16. Jack Satterfield

Boys 18s:
1. Xander Barber
2. Tygen Goldammer
3. Alex Fuchs
4. Sanjeev Chundu
5. Leonardo Dal Boni
6. Connor Smillie (withdrew)
7. Meethre Barot
8. Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes
9. Adam Sun (out rd 1)
10. James Lian
11. Niels Hoffman
12. Kale Mize
13. Carter Pate
14. AJ Mercer (out rd 1)
15. Collin Beduhn (out rd 1)
16. Waleed Qadir

Girls 16s:

1. Laima Frosch (out rd 1)

2. Elena Daskalova

3. Leena Friedman

4. Rachel Lee (out rd 1)

5. Mary Grace Rennard (out rd 2)

6. Sophia Holod

7. Grace Li

8. Isabelle Einess (out rd 2)

9. Olivia Cutone (withdrew)

10. Mila Mulready (out rd 2)

11. Trinetra Vijayakumar

12. Alex Ackman

13. Sydney Fuger (out rd 2)

14. Monika Ekstrand

15. Georgia Cranford

16. Christina Lyutova

Girls 18s

1. Stephanie Yakoff (out rd 1)

2. Esha Velaga

3. Susanna Maltby

4. Natasha Rajaram

5. Tianmei Wang

6. Kaitlyn Carnicella (out rd 2)

7. Aspen Schuman

8. Amber Yin

9. Conley Raidt (out rd 2)

10. Ava Esposito Cogan

11. Brianna Baldi (out rd 2)

12. Brooke Lynn Schafer

13. Emily Deming (out rd 1)

14. Anna Nguyen

15. Eva Oxford

16. Alanis Hamilton

2021 Wimbledon boys champion and Stanford freshman Samir Banerjee broke his wrist in Kalamazoo this year, after a fall in his round of 16 match with Kyle Kang. The 19-year-old from New Jersey played only three collegiate matches in the fall season, but he is currently competing in Tunisia, where he has reached the quarterfinals at the $15,000 ITF World Tennis Tour men's tournament there. Using his ITF junior exemption, I assume for the final time, Banerjee defeated 17-year-old Alexander Blockx of Belgium, No. 15 in the ITF Junior rankings, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals. He'll play another 17-year-old, recent Eddie Herr champion Arthur Gea of France, for a spot in his first Pro Circuit semifinal. Banerjee made two $15K quarterfinals this summer. 

Last week the ITF published its 2022 By The Numbers article, which featured the news that a record 16,102 players competed at ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors events this year. The article also highlights the most titles, the longest winning streaks and the youngest champions of 2022 on the ITF Junior Circuit.

My December Aces column comes out tomorrow, and I would have loved to include Julian Cash and Henry Patten, with the former collegians setting a record for most ATP Challenger doubles titles in 2022. Unfortunately, I didn't have a photo of them, so I couldn't feature them, but I was happy to see this feature from the Oklahoma State(Cash's alma mater)website on how their partnership began, why it's flourished and what their next steps and ranking goals are, now that they are in the Top 100 in the ATP doubles rankings.