Gauff Qualifies for WTA Finals in Singles and Doubles; Kang, Urhobo, Lincer, Brantmeier Advance in USTA Pro Circuit Events; Smaller Draws Coming to USTA 16s and 18s Summer Nationals

It's been almost four years since Coco Gauff played a junior event, going out on top with her title at the 2018 Orange Bowl, when she was 14 years old. But the 18-year-old is still eligible for junior events, so I wanted to highlight her latest accomplishment as she continues to move to new heights on the WTA Tour.

Today she qualified for the WTA Finals, which will be held at the end of this month in Fort Worth Texas, the youngest player to reach the elite year-ending tournament since Maria Sharapova in 2005. Now at a career-high  No. 7, Gauff joins Iga Swiatek, Ons Jabeur, Jessica Pegula and Caroline Garcia. Three more players will qualify, depending on their results this week at the WTA 1000 tournament in Guadalajara Mexico.

Gauff and Pegula have also qualified for the doubles competition at the WTA Finals, with both in the WTA Top 10 in singles and doubles. For a brief time recently Gauff was No. 1 in the WTA doubles rankings.

For more on Gauff's qualifying, see this article from the WTA.

Teenagers also had a good day on the USTA Pro Circuit, with four notable victories.

At the $25,000 men's tournament in Harlingen Texas, 17-year-old Kyle Kang defeated No. 4 seed Cannon Kingsley, a senior at Ohio State, 7-6(6), 6-4 to advance to a second round meeting Thursday with the 2022 NCAA Team Championships Most Outstanding Player Gianni Ross(Virginia). 

At the $60,000 women's tournament in Macon Georgia, 17-year-old Olivia Lincer of Poland advanced to the second round by beating former USC All-American Salma Ewing for the second day in a row. Lincer had beaten Ewing in the final round of qualifying 6-4, 7-5 on Tuesday; today, after Ewing had received entry as a lucky loser, Lincer won 2-6, 7-5, 6-0. She will play Thaisa Pedretti of Brazil in the second round.

Lucky loser Akasha Urhobo earned her first Pro Circuit victory above the $15,000 level today, with the 15-year-old Floridian defeating 35-year-old Dia Evtimova of Bulgaria 6-3, 6-1. Urhobo will face No. 7 seed Taylor Townsend Thursday.

At the $25,000 women's tournament in Fort Worth Texas, 18-year-old North Carolina freshman Reese Brantmeier defeated LSU junior and ITA All-American finalist Kylie Collins 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 to reach the second round. Brantmeier, who hadn't played since the San Diego Nationals in August, will face former Baylor star Mel Krywoj of Argentina.

The Kalamazoo draw boards will have fewer names next year

Although the details for entry and endorsements have yet to be finalized and probably won't be released for several months, the USTA is expected to announce a reduction in the draw size for the USTA 16s and 18s Clay Courts in July and the USTA 16s and 18s Nationals in August. Currently at 224 players, the draw size for those tournaments, the only ones that are that large, will return to 192 players in 2023.

Here's a brief history of the draw sizes at the Nationals, from the archives of the Kalamazoo Boys 16s and 18s.  In 1997, the draw size was expanded from 128 to 192. In 2014, it went back to 128, with a qualifying tournament, but that lasted just one year and returned to 192 for 2015 and 2016. In 2017 the number of players admitted grew to 224, which required a third site, as 31 courts were not enough for all the main draw and consolation matches played the first several days of the tournament. It has been at 224 now for five years, including 2022.