USTA National Hard Courts Wild Cards; Ruzic and Bielinskyi Win ITF B1 European Championships; Unseeded Champions at Tennis Europe 14s

The wild cards for the upcoming USTA National Championships have been named, with the lists below. All the listed players may not have formally accepted the wild cards, but they have been offered a place in the main draw.

Boys 18s
Ben Shelton
Zachary Svajda

Quinn Vandecasteele

Connor Krug

Jake Krug

Tauheed Browning

Ellis Short (withdrew)

Yannik Rahman(withdrew)

Evan Wen

Girls 18s

Kylie Collins

Rachel Gailis

Qavia Lopez

Gabby Price

Ava Krug

Natalie Block

Boys 16s

Kaylan Bigun

Meecah Bigun

Mason Nguyen(withdrew)

Matthew Staton

Maxim Michaels

Girls 16s

Maya Iyengar

Alexia Harmon

Cleo Hutchinson

Boys 14s

Carel Ngounoue

Ilija Palavestra

James Weber

Jack Lindstrom

Vishal Potharaju

Girls 14s

Marcella Roversi

Ishika Khune

Boys 12s

Abel Jackson

Shaan Majeed

Ryan Roedl

Girls 12s

Harper Stone

Ariana Ikwueme

Gabby Slovak

Bella Arwood

The wild cards for the US Open granted for National results are as follows (with ITF age-eligibility a prerequisite):

18s singles champions:

US Open main draw wild card

US Open Junior Championships main draw

18s singles finalists:

US Open qualifying wild card

US Open Junior Championships main draw

18s doubles champions:

US Open main draw (must play with same partner) 

US Open Junior Championships main draw(must play with same partner)

18s third place:

US Open Junior Championships main draw

16s champions:

US Open Junior Championships main draw

18s 4th and 5th place:

US Open Junior Championships qualifying draw

Note that with the US Open Junior draws reduced to 48 main and 24 qualifying, there are just six main draw wild cards and four qualifying wild cards to be distributed this year. Two of the main draw wild cards are already spoken for, going to Clay Court 18s champions Amelia Honer and Ryan Colby.

14s champions Nikola Djosic(SUI) and Tereza Valentova(CZE)
photo credit: Richard van Loon

The European Championships for the Tennis Europe 14s and the ITF B1 concluded on Sunday, with two unseeded players taking the titles in the younger age division.

Nikola Djosic of Switzerland defeated No. 5 seed Jan Kumstat of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-7(4), 6-3 in the boys final, with that middle set the only one he lost in seven matches. Kumstat did take the doubles title, with Maxim Mrva; the top seeds defeated No. 6 seeds Justin Engel and Max Schoenhaus of Germany 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

Tereza Valentov of the Czech Republic won the girls title, beating top seed Alina Korneeva of Russia 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 in the final. Valentova also won the doubles title, with Marie Slamenik; the No. 3 seeds defeated top seeds Rositsa Dencheva and Yoana Konstantinova of Bulgaria  6-3, 7-6(3) in the final.

A slideshow of the final day of the 14s is available at Richard van Loon's Toptennis.photos.  

The full draws are available here.

The ITF JB1 Closed in Klosters Switzerland also produced an unexpected champion, with the girls winner ITF No. 173 Antonia Ruzic of Croatia. Ruzic, 18, had not played a junior event since March of 2020, but she beat both No. 3 seed Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic and 2020 French Open girls champion and top seed Elsa Jacquemot oF France to reach the final. There she encountered ITF No. 99 Alina Granwehr of Switzerland, who had beaten 2021 French Open girls champion and No. 4 seed Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic in the semifinals. Ruzic took the championship match by a 7-5, 2-0 retired score and moved to No. 84 in this week's ITF Junior rankings.

No. 3 seeds Mara Guth and Julia Middendorf of Germany won the girls doubles title, beating top seeds Noskova and Diana Shnaider of Russia 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 in the final.

The boys European B1 champion is No. 2 seed Viacheslav Bielinskyi of Ukraine, who defeated No. 8 seed Petr Nesterov of Bulgaria 7-5, 6-3 in the final. Bielinskyi, 17, moved into the Top 10 in the ITF junior rankings with the title.

The boys doubles title went to No. 6 seeds Adam Jurajda and Daniel Siniakov of the Czech Republic, who defeated unseeded Jerome Kym and Jan Sebesta of Switzerland 5-7, 6-3, 11-9 in the final.