Eddie Herr ITF Videos; Five Top Eight Seeds Exit in Second Round at USTA Winter Nationals 18s and 16s; Svajda Among ATP's Five Challenger Players to Watch in 2024

Now that I'm home and gotten a handle on the laundry and the grocery shopping, I found time today to work on the Eddie Herr videos. Although many more are still to be processed, I did finish the two ITF J300 finals, which could be recorded from behind the stands on the IMG Stadium Court. Unlike many other venues, this meant just one video for each final, which can be found below. 

Boys champion Rodrigo Pacheco decided not to use the qualifying wild card into the ATP 250 in Hong Kong he won as Eddie Herr champion. The draws for that event, with qualifying beginning there 

Sunday, can be found here.

The second round of singles was completed today at the USTA Winter National Championships in Lake Nona, with the top four seeds in both the 16s and 18s, boys and girls, advancing to the third round. With four days left in the tournament and five rounds remaining to be played, two singles matches will need to be played on one of those days, although that plan has not yet been revealed.

Three Top 8 seeds in the 18s and two Top 8 seeds in the 16s lost in today's second round.

No. 6 seed Shaan Patel lost to Lixing Jiang 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 in boys 16s; in the girls 16s, 13-year-old Maggie Sohns defeated No. 6 seed Brooke Kwon 7-6(7), 2-6, 7-6(1).

In the boys 18s, No 5 seed Jimin Jung lost to Cody Benton 6-4, 6-4; No. 7 seed in the girls 18s, Bianca Molnar, defeated No. 7 seed Sophia Holod 6-3, 6-4, with No. 8 seed Nadia Valdez losing to Marina Fuduric 6-2, 7-6(7).

The quarterfinals in the boys 18s doubles are made up of just one Top 8 seed, four No. 9 seeds and three unseeded teams. Top seeds Jung and Shaurya Bharadwaj lost to No. 9 seeds Rocco Mendez and Dylan Blenkiron 7-5, 5-7, 10-8 in today's third round. The top seeds in the B16s doubles also failed to reach the quarterfinals, with No. 9 seeds Ethan Chung and Shaan Patel beating No. 1 seeds Mason Taube and Zavier Augustin 6-4, 6-3.

The 12s and 14s Winter Nationals in San Antonio Texas are on schedule, with the round of 16 now set, as planned, for Sunday. 

The girls 12s still have seeds 1-8 in the round of 16, but the boys 12s lost their first Top 8 seed today, with No. 22 seed Tanmay Konduri beating No. 8 seed Luke Jones 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.

No. 7 seed and Junior Orange Bowl 14s champion Andrew Johnson, who now has the best WTN in the draw after that number was updated mid-tournament, has lost four games in his first three victories.

The girls 14s lost their second Top 8 seed, after top seed Bella Arwood withdrew with an illness in the second round, today. No. 22 seed Goldie Kregar defeated No. 7 seed Ava Beltran 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.

All four of the No. 1 seeds in doubles have advanced to the quarterfinals.

The ATP published an article today entitled Five Challenger Players To Watch In 2024, with two-time Kalamazoo 18s champion Zachary Svajda and 2023 Roland Garros boys champion Dino Prizmic of Croatia among the quintet featured. Svajda won three Challenger titles in 2023, and is set to compete in the Challenger 125 in Canberra Australia next week, where he has drawn top seed Dominik Koepfer(Tulane) of Germany in the first round.