Happy New Year! Top Seeds Fall in USTA Winter National Quarterfinals; Acceptances for This Month's Traralgon and Coffee Bowl ITF J300s

 

2026 didn't start the way that four of the seven No. 1 seeds remaining in contention for the USTA Winter Nationals would have liked, with girls 18s top seed Carlota Moreno the only one to post a quarterfinal victory today in Orlando.

Boys 18s top seed and defending champion Shaan Patel saw his winning streak end at 11 matches, with No. 13 seed Noble Renfrow posting a convincing 6-0, 6-1 victory in today's quarterfinal.

Orange Bowl finalist and boys 16s top seed Daniel Malacek lost to No. 9 seed Nile Ung 6-1, 0-6, 6-4 and girls 16s No. 1 seed Sylvana Jalbert was beaten by 12-year-old Nikol Davletshina 6-3, 6-3.

In San Antonio, the top seeds in the boys and girls 12s advanced to the semifinals, but Ava Chua, No. 1 in the girls 14s, lost to No. 17 seed Charlotte Kim 6-2, 6-2.

USTA Winter Nationals quarterfinal results:

B18s:
Noble Renfrow[13] d. Shaan Patel[1] 6-0, 6-1
Andrew Li[17] d. Michael Lorenzetti 6-2, 6-0

Gordon Gallagher[10] d. Niko Klyachkin[12] 6-4, 2-6, 6-4
Ronit Karki[2] d. Liam Alvarez 6-2, 6-3

B16s:

Nile Ung[9] d. Daniel Malacek[1] 6-1, 0-6, 6-4

Rafael Lopez[4] d. Piotr Gradzki[5] 7-6(5), 1-6, 7-5

Lennart Hammargren[3] d. Adrian Sharma 7-5, 7-5

Akshay Mirmira[17] d. Rafael Pawar[17] 4-6, 6-1, 6-0

B14s:

Nathan Lee d. Rex Kulman[13] 6-4, 6-4

Andy Wu[9] d. Evaan Mohan[17] 6-4, 6-2

Andres Quijada[3] d. Nikola Bogojevic[17] 6-3, 6-1

Jiarui Zhang[2] d. Pranav Vignesh[7] 4-6, 7-5, 6-1

B12s:

Dmitriy Flyam[1] d. Louis Xu[17] 6-1, 6-1

Aaron Peng[7] d. Samuel Hartley[4] 7-6(3), 6-0

Ethan Kim[16] d. Sanath Anand[10] 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 

William Zhang[2] d. David Benedict[6] 6-2, 6-2

G18s

Carlota Moreno[1] d. Maria Navarro[17] 6-1, 6-0

Ellery Mendell[4] d.  Kylie Liu[17] 6-2, 6-4

Carrie-Anne Hoo[3] d. Catherine Rennard[6] 6-0, 7-5

Kenzie Nguyen[8] d. Sophia Budacsek 7-5, 6-2

G16s:

Nikol Davletshina[5] d. Sylvana Jalbert[1] 6-3, 6-3

Olivia Lin[4] d. Sofia Basto Cabrera[6] 6-2, 6-1

Vanessa Kruse[3] d. Fiona Hu[17] 7-5, 6-2

Shristi Selvan[2] d. Alicia Londono 6-1, 5-7, 7-6(11)

G14s:

Charlotte Kim[17] d. Ava Chua[1] 6-2, 6-2

Eugenia Alvarez[9] d. Annabelle Huang 6-3, 6-3

Oleana Zerres[6] d. Aarna Patel 6-1, 6-1

Reese Ellingson[5] d. Natalia Martinez[13] 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-1

G12s:

Anna Sandru[1] d. Alara Buyukuncu[17] 6-1, 6-3

Lailah Cowgill[15] d. Catherine Chan[16] 7-6(6), 6-3

Chloe Anthony[5] d. Summer Yang[3] 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4)

Mary Podkhyneychenko[2] v Lola Looney[9] 6-0, 6-0

The doubles finals are set for Friday, with just two No. 1 seeds still in the hunt for a title.

Winter Nationals doubles finals:

B12s:

Jaden Joyner and Kade Grover[6] v Jackson Ansbach and Aaron Peng[2]

B14s:

Sebastian Zavala and Andres Quijada[1] v. Joshua LaTour and Nathan Goldman[2]

B16s:

Rafael Bote and Mikaeel Alibaig v Akshay Mirmira and Ivan Rybak[2]

B18s:

Rowan Qalbani and Ilias Bouzoubaa v Wesley Cotton and William McEwan

G12s:

Grace Malhotra and Ayenxavia Calugay[9] v Lucy Jiang and Summer Yang[3]

G14s:

Andrea Jakovljevic and Mia Sanblom[14] v Oleana Zerres and Ava Chua[5]

G16s: 

Grace Hong and Audrey Dussault[13] v Priyanka Tallamraju and Pallavi Tallamraju[9]

G18s:

Isabelle DeLuccia and Carrie-Anne Hoo[1] v Addy Rogin and Carlota Moreno[2]

The acceptances to the second and third ITF J300s(the first is the J300 in Delhi India next week) were posted today.

The J300 in Traralgon Australia features most of the same names on its acceptance list as the Australian Open Junior Championships. Jack Kennedy, who told me at the Orange Bowl that he is not playing Australian Open juniors this year, is still entered there, but did not enter Traralgon, so I expect he will withdraw from Melbourne in the next couple of weeks. Orange Bowl champion Thijs Boogaard of the Netherlands has already withdrawn from the Australian Open Juniors and did not enter Traralgon. 

Australian Cruz Hewitt, who received an Australian Open men's qualifying wild card, isn't playing Traralgon, which starts on the Friday of qualifying week.

Girls who are on the Australian Open Junior Championships acceptance list but not on Traralgon's are Sonja Zhenikhova of Germany, Kristina Liutova and Tahlia Kokkinis of Australia. Like Hewitt, Kokkinis received a Australian Open qualifying wild card.

The draws of the J300 Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica are usually full of Americans, and there are 14 US girls among the 22 direct acceptances, but only three US boys: Marcel Latak, Agassi Rusher and Navneet Raghuram. 

Michael Antonius, Andy Johnson and Jordan Lee are not playing in Australia or Costa Rica, although there is a USTA M25 in Orlando the week of January 12th, and five consecutive M15s in Florida after that, so perhaps they will be competing in those events instead of on the ITF Junior Circuit. 

The US girls accepted in Costa Rica are Welles Newman, Capucine Jauffret, Carrie-Ann Hoo, Ishika Ashar, Maggie Sohns, Jordyn Hazelitt, Janae Preston, Thara Gowda, Yael Saffar, Karlin Schock, Ireland O'Brien, Raya Kotseva and Olivia Traynor.

Jauffret is also on the main draw acceptance lists for both Traralgon and the Australian Open Juniors; Hoo is on the main draw list for Traralgon and in qualifying for the Australian Open. The withdrawal deadline for both Traralgon and Costa Rica is Tuesday January 6.