December Aces; Finals Set at USTA Winter Nationals 12s and 14s in Tucson; Quarterfinals Wednesday at 16s and 18s in Lake Nona

My monthly Aces column for the Tennis Recruiting Network is up today and if you didn't have an opportunity to follow my daily coverage from the Eddie Herr, Orange Bowl and Junior Orange Bowl during the always busy month of December, this is a good opportunity to catch up on the the 16 champions who were crowned in the 12s, 14s, 16s and 18s divisions to close out 2018.

The USTA Winter Nationals start in one year and end in the next, with the quarterfinals set for the 16s and 18s at the USTA's National Campus in Lake Nona Florida and the finals now set for the 12s and 14s in Tucson Arizona.

The top four seeds remain in the girls 18s, the other three divisions in Lake Nona haven't gone as expected, although the top seeds in the 16s, Jack Anthrop and Leyden Games, are still alive.  Orange Bowl 16s finalist India Houghton, who was unseeded in the Winter Nats 18s division despite a UTR that was among the highest in the field, has advanced to a quarterfinal meeting with top seed Anessa Lee. The two met in the Easter Bowl final back in March, with Lee winning 6-2, 6-3.

The quarterfinal matchups for Wednesday are below. Live streaming is available here, with court assignments available here under My Start Order.

Girls 16s quarterfinals:
Leyden Games[1] v Angel You
Lan Mi[13] v Bridget Stammel[7]
Gabriella Smith[14] v DJ Bennett
Nadejda Maslova[8] v Emma Charney

Girls 18s quarterfinals:
Anessa Lee[1] v India Houghton
Alana Wolfberg[3] v Casie Wooten
Gianna Pielet[12] v Connie Ma[4]
Carly Briggs[8] v Zoe Howard[2]

Boys 16s quarterfinals:
Jack Anthrop[1] v Luke Casper[5]
Samir Banerjee[11] v Zachery Foster[17]
Carter Morgan v John Kim[17]
Dominik Jakovljevic[17] v Quinn Snyder[13]

Boys 18 quarterfinals:
Zachery Lim[9] v Joshual Raab[17]
Daniel Milavsky[14] v Aryan Chaudhary[10]
Karl Lee v Logan Zapp[4]
Hunter Heck[17] v Ishaan Ravichander[17]

The weather in Tucson has been downright cold, with the highs in the 40s and unfortunately the forecast is no better for finals day on Wednesday. 

The results of today's semifinals are below. The doubles finals were played today, but I'll post those results on Wednesday so that singles and doubles will be in the same place.

Boys 12s:
Max Exsted[4] d. Nikita Filin[10] 3-6, 7-5, 6-2
Mason Nguyen[9] d. Sebastian Muhala[3] 6-3, 7-6(5)

Boys 14s:
Brayden Michna[17] def. Evan Wen[1] 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(4)
Sebastian Gorzny[2] d. Rudy Quan[17] 6-1, 6-0

G14s
Ria Bhakta[9] def. Karsyn Evans[13] 6-4, 6-0
Kinaa Graham[5] d. Tsehay Driscoll[3] 7-5, 6-3

G12s
Amber Yin[1] d. Bianca Molnar[10] 6-1, 6-1
Kinley VanPelt[7] d. Natasha Rajaram[9] 7-6(6), 6-7(10), 6-2