Happy New Year! Semifinals Set for Monday at USTA 18s and 16s Winter Nationals; More Rain in Tucson Disrupts 12s and 14s

photo by Antonio Gabola, via unsplash.com

Happy New Year to everyone as 2023 begins, with the first championship matches of the year only two days away.

Although I'm not there, I assume the weather in Lake Nona Florida has been good throughout the 18s and 16s Winter Nationals, with the semifinals in both singles and doubles scheduled for Monday, as expected. The draws have not gone to form, at all, but except for the B16s, at least two seeds in each division have advanced to the semifinals.

Unseeded 15-year-old Maximus Dussault earned the most significant upset today, defeating Boys 16s No. 3 seed Brody Nejedly Krall 7-5, 6-1. He will face unseeded 14-year-old Carel Ngounoue, who beat Stephen Faraci 6-1, 6-2. Unseeded 14-year-old Keaton Hance also advanced to the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Easter Bowl 14s champion and No. 8 seed Noah Johnston. Hance will play the only seed left in the Boys 16s, No. 13 Mitchell Sheldon.

USTA Nationals 16s semifinalist Tianmei Wang, seeded No. 5, is the Girls 18s favorite now by seeding, but given how the seeds have fared this week, no result in the semifinals would be a surprise. Unseeded Ariel Mataldi defeated No. 8 seed Amber Yin 6-2, 7-5 to reach the semifinals, where she'll play No. 16 seed Alanis Hamilton, a 15-year-old who had her toughest match of the tournament, beating Sari Woo, a No. 17 seed, 7-5, 7-6(6). 

Columbia recruit Gayathri Krishnan, a No. 17 seed, beat 15-year-old Aspen Schuman, the No. 7 seed, 6-3, 6-3 to reach a semifinal contest with Wang.

Unseeded Summer Chandler, who beat Girls 16s top seed Laima Frosch in the first round, has continued her string of results, beating No. 17 seed Nadia Barteck 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 in today's quarterfinals. Twelve-year-old Christina Lyutova, crowned the 12s Junior Orange Bowl champion less than two weeks ago, has also advanced to Monday's semifinals. 

Today's singles quarterfinal results:

Girls 18s:
Ariel Madatali d. Amber Yin[8] 6-2, 7-5
Alanis Hamilton[16] d. Sari Woo[17] 7-5, 7-6(6)
Gayathri Krishnan[17] d. Aspen Schuman[7] 6-3, 6-3
Tianmei Wang[5] d. Alana Boyce[17] 6-0, 2-0, ret.

Girls 16s:
Summer Chandler d. Nadia Barteck[17] 6-2, 3-6, 6-2
Leena Friedman[3] d. Kenzie Nguyen[17] 4-6, 6-2, 6-2
Christina Lyutova[16] d. Thea Latak 6-0, 6-4
Sophia Holod[6] d. Monika Ekstrand 4-6, 7-5, 6-1

Boys 18s:

Waleed Qadir[16] d. Matthew Fullerton 7-5, 6-3

Kase Schinnerer d. Declan Galligan 6-1, 4-6, 6-4

Brandon Carpico d. Mikel Anderson 3-6, 6-1, 6-4

James Lian[10] d. Saahith Jayaraman 6-2, 6-1

Boys 16s:

Carel Ngounoue d. Stephen Faraci 6-1, 6-2

Maximus Dussault d. Brody Nejedly Krall[3] 7-5, 6-1

Mitchell Sheldon[13] d. Benjamin Sparks 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-2

Keaton Hance d. Noah Johnston[8] 6-4, 6-3

The rain that was predicted for Tucson today did in fact arrive, and just two main draw matches in the 12s and 14s divisions were completed. Monday's schedule shows all eight quarterfinal matches in the 12s and the six remaining quarterfinal matches in the 14s at 10:00 a.m. Mountain time. There is also a chance of rain Monday and Tuesday, so that schedule may not hold.

Below are the quarterfinal matchups and the two results posted before the rain arrived this morning.

Boys 14s:

Lixing Jiang[1] vs Navnett Raghuram[8]

Vihaan Reddy[4] vs David Wu[5]

Colin McPeek[3] d. Jacob Hewitt[7] 6-0, 6-1

Anish Poojari[12] vs Kollin Nguyen-Ngo[17]

Boys 12s:

Tabb Tuck[1] vs Eli Kaminski[8]

Zesen Wang[4] vs Tristan Ascenzo[17]

Daniel Gardality[12] vs Dylan Meineke[3]

Carter Jauffret[7] vs Diego Custodio[2]

Girls 14s:

Ellery Mendell[14] d. Anna Bugaienko[6] 6-1, 6-1

Nadia Valdez vs Nancy Lee[7]

Emily Golovanov[8] vs Carrie-Anne Hoo

Ireland O'Brien[5] vs Sydney Barnhart[10]

Girls 12s:

Caroline Shao[1] vs Emerson White[17]

Grace Hong[3] vs Camilla Kostik[14]

Anshu Matham[10] vs Allison Wang[4]

Michelle Lee[9] vs Raya Kotseva[2]