12s, 14s, 16s Easter Bowl Seeds; ITF Announces More World Tennis Tour Changes; Four Americans Qualify at Miami Open; Texas Men No. 1 in USTA Poll

Although draws are not yet up, the Easter Bowl seeds have been released, with the 12s and 14s division beginning play on Saturday at sites around Indian Wells. The girls 16s field looks particularly strong, especially when considering who isn't seeded: Reese Brantmeier, Rebecca Lynn, Anne Lutkemeyer(last year's Carson 16s champion). Last year's 12s champion, Clervie Ngounoue, is skipping the 14s and playing in the 16s division this year. The 16s begin play on Monday, as do the 18s. There will be live streaming of two courts at Indian Wells Tennis Garden during the week. See the tournament website for more information.

Chaudhary finished 5th in 16s at 2018 Easter Bowl

Boys 16s:
1. Aryan Chaudhary
2. Luke Casper
3. Samir Banerjee
4. Thomas Paulsell
5. Gavin Young
6. Gabriellus Guzauskas
7. Louis Cloud
8. Liam Krall
9. JJ Tracy
10. Daniel Schmelka
11. Nathan Mao
12. John Kim
13. Maxwell Smith
14. Luke Neal
15. Jameson Corsillo
16. Victor Lilov

Boys 14s:
1. Aidan Kim
2. Yannik Rahman
3. Lucas Brown
4. Will Mayew
5. Alex Cairo
6. Brayden Michna
7. Kurt Miller
8. Ritesh Patil
9. Cooper Williams
10. Waleed Qadir
11. Nicholas Godsick
12. Juncheng Shang
13. Dylan Charlap
14. Garen Spicka
15. Learner Tien
16. John Lasanajak

Boys 12s:
1. Maxwell Exsted
2. Cooper Woestendick
3. Darren Huang
4. Abhinav Chunduru
5. A Filer
6. Joseph Hobbs
7. Yubel Ubri
8. Heath Waters
9. Vincent Yang
10. Prathinav Chunduru
11. Kase Schinnerer
12. Blake Hilsen
13. Abhishek Thorat
14. Cassius Chinlund
15. Roman Sancilio
16. Shri Keshav Murugesan

Girls 16s:
1. Nadejda Maslova
2. Misa Malkin
3. Julie Fliegner
4. Ellie Pittman
5. Sarah Hamner
6. Kiley Rabjohns
7. Eleana Yu
8. Jennifer Riester
9. Vivian Ovrootsky
10. DJ Bennett
11. Sydni Ratliff
12. Daniella Benabraham
13. Brooke Killingsworth
14. Sophia Fornaris
15. Ava Catanzarite
16. Gavriella Smith

Girls 14s:
1. Stephanie Yakoff
2. Ria Bhakta
3. Tsehay Driscoll
4. Natalie Block
5. Salma Farhat
6. Priya Nelson
7. Lamija Avdic
8. Alexia Harmon
9. Natalia Perez
10. Madison Weekley
11. Karsyn Evans
12. Liv Hovde
13. Jacqueline Soloveychik
14. Mika Ikemori
15. Qavia Lopez
16. Ava Krug

Girls 12s:
1. Thea Latak
2. Thalia Smith
3. Kinley Vanpelt
4. Emily Deming
5. Aspen Schuman
6. Mariana Shulman
7. Natasha Rajaram
8. Polina Krumkachev
9. Eva Oxford
10. Bianca Molnar
11. Bella Payne
12. Sasha Kilgour
13. Tianmei Wang
14. Annika Renganathan
15. Emily Ing
16. Anika Paul

The ITF continues to make changes to the World Tennis Tour, with a new set of tweaks announced today:

- Where Pre-Qualifying / Wild Card competitions are created to offer additional playing opportunities, such events will be governed by the full ITF World Tennis Tour regulations;

- An increase in the Singles Qualifying Draw at Women’s World Tennis Tour $60,000, $80,000 and $100,000 tournaments from 24 to 32, where tournaments have the capacity;

- The introduction of a Protected Ranking for the ITF World Tennis Singles and Doubles Rankings;

- Introduction of two (2) reserved places in $15,000 tournament Doubles Draws for teams to be accepted by ATP/WTA/ITF Doubles ranking;

- Introduction of two (2) reserved places in $25,000 tournament Doubles Draws for teams to be accepted by ITF Doubles ranking;

- Improved processing of Tournament Acceptance Lists after the Freeze Deadline to display withdrawals and remove Alternates from all but their highest priority tournament in order to provide more predictable playing opportunities for players;

- An increase in the number of year-end Junior Exempt Project places from three (3) to five (5) for elite ITF Junior players;

- To canvas player feedback on potential introduction of 48 qualifying draws noting that playing twice a day without a day off risks player health issues.
The ITF goes on to say that it recognizes that the lack of points for men at the $25,000 level has created a problem, but it puts that back in the lap of the ATP. I would assume the ATP would have left things as they were had the ITF not introduced all these changes, so the ITF does need to take responsibility for what it set in motion, although I would hope the ATP, who have control over their points, would acknowledge the issue.

The complete release from the ITF is available here.

Yesterday's action at the Miami Open was rained out, and it's raining again this evening, but they did manage to finish the qualifying today, with Reilly Opelka, Jessica Pegula, Sachia Vickery and Taylor Townsend the Americans earning main draw spots.

In first round main draw action, 2017 US Open girls champion Amanda Anisimova defeated Andrea Petkovic of Germany 6-4, 6-3 and 2018 US Open girls champion Xiyu Wang of China, a wild card, defeated Monica Puig of Puerto Rico 6-3, 6-1.  The first round match between teenage wild cards Caty McNally and Coco Gauff is scheduled for Thursday.

The USTA/Tennis Channel rankings were released today, and unlike the computer, the voters decided another men's team was better suited to the No. 1 spot previously occupied by Ohio State. Texas is now No. 1 in the poll, while Georgia remains at the top spot in the women's poll. As in this week's ITA rankings, Pepperdine was a top mover on the women's side. The Top 10 are below; the full Top 25 lists are at usta.com.

USTA/Tennis Channel Division I Team Rankings, March 20, 2019
(previous week's rankings in parentheses):

MEN:
1. Texas (3)
2. Ohio State (1)
3. Wake Forest (2)
4. Florida (8)
5. Virginia (5)
6. Stanford (6)
7. TCU (7)
8. North Carolina (4)
9. Baylor (10)
10. Columbia (9)

WOMEN:
1. Georgia (1)
2. North Carolina (2)
3. Stanford (3)
4. Duke (4)
5. Pepperdine (12)
T6. South Carolina (7)
T6. Vanderbilt (5)
8. Texas (6)
9. Ohio State (10)
10. UCLA (8)