My Interview with Texas Freshman Maya Joint; Seeds, Draws for USTA National Indoor Championships Beginning Friday; Happy Thanksgiving!

I was happy to have an opportunity to speak with University of Texas freshman Maya Joint earlier this month in Midland. It had been just over a year since I had spoken to her, after her two titles at the ITF J300 Pan American Regional Championships in Houston in September of 2023. Joint's decision to retain her collegiate eligibility, leaving over $140,000 in prize money earned at the US Open unclaimed, garnered the attention of the media in New York, so that was obviously addressed in our conversation. We of course spoke about her rapid rise, her US Open experiences, and why she was so determined to attend college for this article at the Tennis Recruiting Network.

The USTA Level 1 National Indoor Championships begin Friday at eight locations in the East and Midwest. Seven of the eight draws have been posted; if the boys 14s is posted late tonight, I'll try to add the seeds here tomorrow.

I know we have all been patiently waiting for the World Tennis Number to have some influence on the seedings for events like these, but that has not happened yet, as you can see from my comments on some of the seeds below. There are obviously still problems with the accuracy of the WTN, which the posting of the WTNs on the draws makes clear.

USTA National Indoor Championships seeds, links to draws:

Boys 12s: Flushing Meadows NY*

https://playtennis.usta.com/Competitions/ustanationaltenniscenter/Tournaments/draws/0754D366-3807-4D81-A9CA-521104008531

1. James Borchard

2. Blount Williams

3. David Bender

4. Pranav Vignesh

5. Jason Ye

6. Keita Iwata

7. Stanley Oriala Jr

8. Davidson Jackson

9. Udham Singh

10. Olie Rosa Hall

11. Selwyn Olufemi-Owoeye

12. Mateo Vincens

13. Evan Fan

14. London Slaton

15. William McGugin

16. Brishan Paul

Girls 12s: Manchester MA*

https://playtennis.usta.com/Competitions/manchester-athletic-club/Tournaments/draws/836874AC-688B-4EDA-B592-1F639195F44C

1. Isha Manchala

2. Tara Guhan

3. Anna Kapanadze 

4. Harshitha Thirugnanam

5. Gabrielle Villegas

6. Capri Butera

7. Kareena Cross

8. Josephine Zhou

9. Danielle Han

10. Nicole Blanco

11. Chloe Wang

12. Ilinca Gusatu

13. Kate Liu

14. Piper Yea

15. Chloe Anthony

16. Glori Caldwell

B14s Chicago IL

https://playtennis.usta.com/Competitions/midtownathleticclub00/Tournaments/draws/8B1EE200-6470-4E7A-832C-98FF99400835

1. Eli Kaminski

2. Zesen Wang

3. Aayush Vartak

4. Daniel Malacek

5. Maddox Iliescu

6. Antanas Daugis

7. Aleksandar Doskovic

8. Akshath Hemanth

9. Joshua Dolinsky

10. Manas Kondapalli

11. Damian Guthheil

12. Takuto Goh

13. Zander Abrams

14. Mason Menyhart

15. Joseph Kim 

16. Smyan Thuta

G14s Toledo OH

https://playtennis.usta.com/Competitions/TwosAthleticClub/Tournaments/draws/93EE4700-FACB-4DB9-B775-D7C191952576

1. Michelle Lee

2. Sylvana Jalbert

3. Adelyn Gross

4. Shristi Selvan

5. Savannah Schmitz

6. Olivia Lin

7. Teaghan Jou An Keys

8. Sofia Kedrin

9. Alexandra Grilliot

10. Evelynn Kwak

11. Masha Semenova

12. Natalie Frisbie

13. Anya Arora

14. Emerson White

15. Heidi Polasek

16. London Evans

B16s Chicago IL*

https://playtennis.usta.com/Competitions/xs-tennis-inc/Tournaments/draws/22FDB77E-53A1-41EA-87FD-0746C6C4BF89

1. Shaan Patel

2. Yashwin Krishnakumar

3. Lixing Jiang

4. Artem Dmytrenko

5. Magnus Weng

6. Owen Guistwite

7. Alexander Suhanitski

8. William McEwan

9. Theo Hegarty

10. Colin McPeek

11. Safir Azam

12. Louis Anderson III

13. Joseph Nau

14. Anish Poojari

15. Benjamin Berger

16. Rafael Lopez

NOTE: Marcel Latak has the fourth best WTN in the field; the three players with better WTNs are the top three seeds; he is unseeded.

G16s Minneapolis MN*

https://playtennis.usta.com/Competitions/usta-northern/Tournaments/draws/69A87546-B9E3-4E5E-BD30-C9E3CDEC3F93

1. Kohana Darroch

2. Kara Garcia best 20.25

3. Carolina Castro

4. Kayden Johnson

5. Sasha Miroshnichenko

6. Aya Manning

7. Emi Dowdell

8. Jensen Diianni

9. Sophia Budaczek

10. Raina Kim

11. Cassandra Li

12. Sophia Miller

13. Lauren Nolan

14. Claire Macedo 23.93

15. Aarini Bhattacharya

16. Helena Klooster

NOTE: Seven of the nine girls with WTNs in the 20.xx range are seeded, Anna Bugaienko 20.49 and Julia Seversen 20.26 are not.  Eleven players with WTNs of 21.xx and higher are seeded.

B18s Overland Park KS

https://playtennis.usta.com/Competitions/OPRC/Tournaments/draws/425A9B9D-5D9C-480B-9FD5-02F8837F34FD

1. Prathinav Chunduru

2. Braeden Gelletich

3. Nicholas Patrick

4. Nolan Balthazor

5. Blake Anderson

6. Arnav Bhandari

7. Drew Fishback

8. Joshua Lamm-Bocharov

9. Houston Jacques

9. Winston Lee

9. Tej Bhagra

9. Mark Krupkin

9. Sibby Rodi

9. Bryan Assi

9. Woodson McMillin

9. Brody Nejedly Krall

NOTE: Six of 8 players with 15.xx WTNs are not seeded, while 2 with 17.xx WTNs are seeded.

G18s Indianapolis IN

https://playtennis.usta.com/Competitions/indianapolisracquetclubdean/Tournaments/draws/7EE13C24-AC4F-4BCF-917E-28F3E661AE60

1. Sophia Holod

2. Thara Gowda

3. Kayla Chung

4. Ashley Kurizaki

5. Kaya Moe

6. Calla McGill

7. Katie Spencer

8. Carrie-Anne Hoo

10. Alaina LiSanti

11. Chloe Qin

12. Amiya Bowles

13. Alexandra Wolf

14. Karlin Schock

15. Blair Gill

16. Andra Braicu

NOTE: No. 3 G18s seed Kayla Chung's WTN of 15.84 is better than the top seed in the B18s, Prathinav Chunduru, whose WTN is 16.55

*Electronic Line Calling sites

photo by Joanna Kosinska at unsplash.com

I'm taking tomorrow off for Thanksgiving, but I'll be back on Friday, from the IMG International Championships in Bradenton, where qualifying for the 12s, 14s and 16s age divisions is already underway.