July Aces; Svajda, Razeghi Top Kalamazoo 18s and 16s Seeding Lists; USTA Girls 16s Draw Posted for Wednesday Start; ITF World Junior Tennis 14U Team Event Begins in Czech Republic; Grip MD Debuts

My monthly Tennis Recruiting Network article, featuring Wimbledon champions, the first ATP and WTA titles for former collegians and many other milestones for those who are in the college and junior tennis realms is available today. Check out the 17 players who had memorable wins in July here.

The draws for the Kalamazoo 16s and 18s should be available later tonight, but here is a list of the top 32 seeds. A seeding committee from the tournament makes suggestions, but it is the USTA that has the final say on who is seeded, and where, in its sanctioned events.

Zachary Svajda returns to Kalamazoo
to defend his 2019 title as the top seed

Boys 18s:

1. Zachary Svajda
2. Martin Damm

3. Ben Shelton

4. Ethan Quinn

5. Samir Banerjee

6. Bruno Kuzuhara

7. Victor Lilov (withdrew)

8. Dali Blanch

9. Alexander Bernard

10. Ozan Colak

11. Aidan Mayo

12. Aidan Kim

13. Benjamin Kittay

14. Braden Shick

15. Azuma Visaya

16. Michael Zheng

17. Gavin Young

18. Kyle Kang

19. Alejandro Moreno

20. Sebastian Gorzny

21. Bjorn Swenson

22. Masato Perera

23. Nicholas Heng

24. Ryan Colby

25. Alex Michelsen

26. Kian Vakili

27. Alexander Visser

28. Aadarsh Ripathi

29. Colton Smith

30. Eric Li

31. Alex Finkelstein

32. Rohan Sachdev

Boys 16s:

1. Alexander Razeghi

2. Emon van Loben Sels

3. Learner Tien

4. Lucas Brown

5. Cooper Woestendick

6. Ari Cotoulas

7. Quang Duong

8. Mitchell Lee

9. Andrew Delgado

10. Roy Horovitz (withdrew)

11. Zane Ford

12. Chase Fralick

13. Alexander Frusina

14. Nicholas Godsick

15. Jonathan Irwanto

16. Rudy Quan

17. Stefan Regalia

18. Cyrus Mahjoob

19. Marko Mesarovic

20. Owen Megargee

21. Nikita Filin

22. Alexander Aney

23. Jason Shuler

24. Greyson Casey

25. Dylan Tsoi

26. William Hsieh

27. Declan Galligan

28. Aaron Sandler

29. Adhithya Ganesan

30. Eli Stephenson

31. Meecah Bigun

32. Kaylan Bigun

I will not be writing a preview of Kalamazoo this year for Tennis Recruiting, but I did talk with Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets last week about both the Girls and Boys 18s Nationals' top contenders in this podcast.

The USTA Girls 16s Nationals starts earlier than usual this year in San Diego, with the tournament needing to make that change due to fewer courts available to them than usual. That means the singles draw has already been posted, with times for Wednesday's first round and Thursday's second round, when the top 32 will begin play. They do not seed to 32, but rather have 16 No. 17 seeds, so I'm just listing the top 16 below:

G16s:

1. Theadora Rabman

2. Tatum Evans

3. Piper Charney

4. Ariana Pursoo

5. Reese Miller

6. Amber Yin

7. Kinaa Graham

8. Alexia Harmon

9. Stephanie Yakoff

10. Ahmani Guichard

11. Arina Oreshchenkova

12. Valeria Ray

13. Tola Glowacka

14. Kaitlyn Carnicella

15. Brooklyn Olson

16. Sophie Llewellyn

The ITF's World Junior Tennis 14U Team Championships are being held this year, after being canceled last year, in its usual venue and place on the calendar. The United States is not participating, either in this event or in the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup this fall, so I will not be reporting regularly on the event, although I will post on the finals, scheduled for Saturday. 

The boys seeds are:

1. Italy

2. Czech Republic

3. Switzerland

4. Canada

5. Russia

6. Japan

7. Colombia 

8. Korea

The girls seeds are:

1. Russia

2. Bulgaria

3. Slovakia

4. Czech Republic

5. Colombia

6. Thailand

7. Canada

8. Japan

Round robin play in four groups began today in Prostejov Czech Republic. The ITF preview is here; the tournament website, with live streaming and live scoring, is here.

I had heard that former USTA National Coach Mark Merklein was working on a new tennis-related product a few months ago, and last month I received a press release on that product: Grip MD, an aid to teaching the continental grip. Merklein, who won the NCAA singles title at Florida in 1994, is a co-founder of the company that produces Grip MD, with former Notre Dame standout Matt Daly. Check out the Grip MD's YouTube channel for demonstrations, and see this article for more about Merklein and Daly.