Top 16s Singles Seeds, Top 18s Doubles Seeds Advance with Indoor Victories Tuesday at Kalamazoo Nationals; Cincinnati Open Announces Wild Cards; Anisimova and Tien Lead US Open Wild Card Race

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Kalamazoo MI--

The rain began at 7 a.m. and persisted through late afternoon Tuesday at the USTA Boys 16s and 18s National Championships, so all 32 of the third round 16s singles matches and all 16 of of the third round boys 18s doubles matches began and ended indoors at various sites around Kalamazoo.

The seven of the top eight 16s seeds were in action at the Markin Tennis Center on the Kalamazoo College campus to start the day, and advanced, although most matches were close and two went to three sets.

No. 5 seed Ryan Cozad needed nearly three hours to get past No. 33 seed Safir Azam 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, and No. 8 seed Andrew Johnson had to battle from behind to defeat No. 33 seed Muyang Yi 1-6, 7-5, 6-1.

Top seed Gus Grumet defeated No. 33 seed Vihaan Reddy, a wild card, 6-3, 6-2, and No. 2 seed Gavin Goode overcame a serious challenge from No. 33 seed Bryan Assi 6-3, 7-5.

No. 3 seed Jack Secord defeated unseeded Dhakshish Aryan 6-4, 6-2 and No. 4 seed Yannik Alvarez beat No. 33 seed Maksim Nekrasov 7-5, 6-2.  Keaton Hance, the No. 6 seed, who originally received acceptance into the 18s, but took a wild card into the 16s, edged No. 33 seed and fellow Southern California Benjamin Berger 6-4, 6-4 in a Court 1 match that featured big hitting and lengthy rallies. Hance, who trailed in the first set and led in the second, ended up needing late breaks in both sets to claim the win.

The only Top 8 seed who did not play at Markin, No. 7 seed Zavier Augustin, won his third round match over No. 33 seed Joseph Nau 6-2, 6-0 at the West Hills Athletic Club's indoor courts.

The only Top 16 seed who did not make the round of 32 was No. 11 Arjun Prabhakar, who lost 6-2, 7-5 to Adrien Abarca.

The third round of 16s doubles was again canceled due to the rain, so they are officially now a day behind schedule and whether both the third and fourth rounds will be played Wednesday is still to be determined.

The good news is that the weather forecast for the remainder of the tournament is excellent, so all the radar monitoring and the  transitions from outdoor to indoor courts should be a thing of the past beginning Wednesday.

The third round of 18s doubles managed to stay on schedule, with seven of the Top 8 seeds advancing to the round of 16 on Wednesday.

Top seeds and defending champions Alex Frusina and Adhithya Ganesan had a bit of a rocky start to their title defense on Sunday, going down 5-3 in their first match in the second round, but they won ten straight games to close out that victory, then started their third round match today at the Markin Tennis Center against Nav Dayal and Saahith Jayaraman by taking six consecutive games in their 6-0, 6-3 victory.

"We just hadn't played together since December," said Ganesan, a rising sophomore at Florida. "So it took a little bit of time to kind of get used to playing together again, but now we're in that rhythm."

"We haven't really haven't talked about it too much, but I think we kind of know the confidence we have from last year, and we're using it this time around," said Frusina, who begins his collegiate career at Auburn later this month.

Dayal and Jayaraman broke their string of 16 straight games stayed in the second set by winning three deciding points.

"They started serving better, they held three times," Ganesan said of more competitive second set. "We lost three no-ad points, they played good points, in the tight situations, they played better in those games, but overall, we played solid."

After winning the title last year as the No. 7 seeds, Ganesan and Frusina haven't given much thought to their postion as No. 1 seeds this year, in a field that includes three current junior slam doubles champions in Alex Razeghi(Wimbledon) and Max Exsted and Cooper Woestendick(Australian Open).

"I don't think we've thought too much about the seeding," Frusina said. "Personally I haven't thought about the 1 next to our names; we're just having fun in our one last time playing here."

Although they are likely to encounter each other in SEC play next year, there's no obvious opportunity to play together again after this tournament, unless of course they win another US Open main draw wild card.

"If we end up playing some Futures, I'd be down to play together, but it depends," Frusina said. "But if he's available, I'd totally message him."

Frusina has mixed feelings about playing against Ganesan in dual matches next spring.

"We will play against each other, which is a bit unfortunate, but I'm kind of looking forward to that one."

No. 2 seed Woestendick and Exsted defeated Charlie Burdell and Blake Hilsen 7-5, 6-1, while No. 4 seeds Nikita Filin and Razeghi beat Jack Mountford and Bassil Touban 6-2, 6-4.  No. 3 seeds Noah Johnston and Benjamin Willwerth, who did not play at Markin, got past Braeden Gelletich and Karan Raghavendra 7-6(4), 4-6, 10-3.

The fourth round of 16s singles will begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday at Stowe Stadium, with the fourth round of 18s singles scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. The annual Dinner at the Nats evening schedule features the 18s doubles fourth round, beginning at 5 p.m.

See the ustaboys.com website for updated information and links to live streaming(Stowe) and live scoring(Stowe and WMU).

The Cincinnati Open begins with qualifying this coming Sunday, and wild cards for both main draw and qualifying have been announced.

The women's main draw wild cards were awarded to Bianca Andreescu of Canada, Caroline Wozniacki, Caroline Dolehide and Peyton Stearns(Texas). The only two qualifying wild cards announced are for Taylor Townsend and Marina Stakusic of Canada.

The men's main draw wild cards were awarded to Marcos Giron(UCLA), Matteo Berrettini of Italy, Max Purcell of Australia and Reilly Opelka. Qualifying wild cards were given to JJ Wolf(Ohio State), Zachary Svajda, Brandon Holt(USC) and Mackenzie McDonald(UCLA).

The USTA's US Open Wild Card Challenge is now into its last week, with the leaders listed below:

US Open Wild Card Challenge Standings Update   Orlando, Fla., August 6, 2024 – Amanda Anisimova finds herself atop of the women's US Open Wild Card Challenge standings after reaching the quarterfinals of the WTA 500 event in Washington, D.C., last week as a qualifier. Learner Tien extended his lead in the men's standings as his impressive summer continued with a run to the quarterfinals at the USTA Pro Circuit's Lexington Challenger.   This is the final week of the Challenge for both men and women. The current top of the men's and women's standing (player's current ranking in parenthesis):    MEN   1. Learner Tien (232) -- 109 2. Nishesh Basavareddy (295) -- 52 3. JJ Wolf (162) -- 50 4. Eliot Spizzirri (353) -- 47 5. Colton Smith (631) -- 41   WOMEN   1. Amanda Anisimova (132) -- 133 2. Alycia Parks (99) -- 131 3. Robin Montgomery (107) -- 108 4. Sophie Chang (246) -- 102 5. Maria Mateas (209) -- 75

Gelletich Ousts No. 7 Seed Mayew, No. 2 Seed Blanch Survives Test to Advance in Kalamazoo 18s; Rain Cancels 16s Play; Rundown of Early Round Results from USTA Nationals; US Teams Among Favorites at ITF World Junior Tennis 14U Event

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Kalamazoo MI--

After a warm and sunny weekend, rain returned Monday morning, washing away the 16s third round singles matches originally scheduled for day four and both 16s and 18s doubles third round matches.

But when the thunderstorms moved out and the courts dried by early afternoon, the 32 third round singles matches in 18s did finish, much to the relief of No. 2 seed Darwin Blanch.

Blanch received a walkover in the second round Saturday, and because he is not playing doubles this week, he had yet to hit a ball that counted after arriving from Orlando Thursday. 

The 2022 Kalamazoo 16s champion looked rusty at the start of his 6-4, 7-5 win over Yale rising freshman Krish Gupta, a 33 seed. Down 4-1 in the opening set, Blanch put the blame squarely on his poor play, although Gupta did contribute to that.

"I didn't play even close to my average level today," said the 16-year-old left-hander, who trains at the Ferrero Academy in Spain. "I was feeling not so good on court at all, I was missing a lot of shots. He was playing pretty well, but I obviously wasn't. When I was 4-1 down in the first set, I was thinking to just keep calm and not show a lot of frustration, just make more balls, not be so aggressive, play with more margin."

That switch in strategy led to five straight games and the first set, but Gupta was not ready to concede anything, taking a 4-1 lead in the second set.

"In the second set I think I got a little more frustrated because he was still playing well," said Blanch. "I thought his level would drop a little bit, but he didn't, so I kind of did the same thing as the first set and it worked again, so I'm pretty happy I got the win."

Kalamazoo is the first junior tournament Blanch has played and will play all year, and it took him some time to get accustomed to calling his own lines again. The tournament has chair umpires for every match, but their role is to correct obvious mistakes in lines called by players until full officiating crews are assigned later in the tournament.

"It's a little weird, at the start, I was like, the ref isn't calling anything," said Blanch, who reached the final of a $15K last month in Tunisia before flying to Orlando to train with many of the players who among the top seeds here in Kalamazoo. "As the match went on, I started to get used to it, but it's been a whole year, since here last year. I was trying to adapt and as the match went on I got it."

Blanch's 2023 Kalamazoo ended on the same court where he played today, Court 2, when he lost to eventual champion Learner Tien in quarterfinalss, the only match Blanch has lost at Kalamazoo.

"He's been playing fantastic tennis this summer, won like five tournaments in a row," said Blanch, who wouldn't have minded another chance to play Tien again here this year. "He totally deserves a (US Open) wild card. I still have a little scar from that loss last year, a set and a break up, but hopefully I'll get a chance to play him again and see how it goes."

Blanch is scheduled to play No. 18 seed Nikita Filin on Wednesday.

Top seed Trevor Svajda, who lost to Tien in last year's final, had a much less dramatic win today on Stowe Stadium's Acker Center Court, defeating Meecah Bigun, a No. 33 seed, 6-2, 6-1.  No. 3 seed Kaylan Bigun beat No. 33 seed Nathan Gold 6-1, 6-2 and No. 4 seed Cooper Woestendick, the 2023 16s champion, defeated unseeded Brody Nejedly Krall 6-3, 6-1.

The only top 16 seed to fall in the third round was No. 7 seed Ian Mayew, who was beaten by Indiana rising freshman Braeden Gelletich 6-1, 2-6, 6-2.

Gelletich, who has been among the top players in the USTA National 18s rankings all year, relished his role as underdog against Mayew, who is 31 in the ITF world junior rankings.

"I went out there with nothing to lose," said the 18-year-old from Goshen New York. "I still think I'm kind of below their level, have a few things to work on. On any particular day, I can compete with anybody, but I hope to get more solid, so I can do it day after day. Here there's no expectations for me to win, no real pressure for me to win, until that last game, when I was up 40-15, I kind of felt the pressure then."

Gelletich used the 10-minute break between the second and third sets to reassess his strategy in a discussion his father and coach Les Smith.

"Basically, toward the end of the second set, he started tiring," Gelletich said. "They noticed that, and told me not to go for too much, inside of pulling him out wide, hit it up the middle, kind of wait him out. But after I broke him to go up 3-1 in the third set, I started ripping the ball, feeling myself. He hit some good shots and came in and I passed him, hit a few balls down the line."

Gelletich's opponent in Wednesday's third round is No. 20 seed Matthew Forbes.

There are three unseeded players in the 18s fourth round(round of 32): Maximus Dussault, Andrew Li(who face each other) and John Cross.

The weather forecast for Tuesday puts the chance of rain at 90%, so preparations are being made for the 16s third round singles matches to be played indoors beginning at 9 a.m. See ustaboys.com for up-to-date information on the doubles and feed-in schedules.

In San Diego, the top 16 seeds in the 18s division advanced to the third round. The 16s are still playing their third round matches, with three Top 16 seeds already out: No. 11 Carlota Moreno, No. 13 Emerey Gross and No. 15 seed Ellery Mendell.

At the girls 14s in Rome Georgia, five of the top 16 seeds are out after three rounds, including No. 4 seed Corinne Winningham and No. 7 seed Savannah Schmitz.

At the girls 12s in Peachtree Corners Georgia, all of the top 16 seeds are through to the third round, and the top 16 have all reached the third round at the boys 12s in Mobile Alabama.

In the boys 14s in Mobile, three of the top 16 seeds are out after three rounds: No. 4 Akshay Mirmira, No. 6 Alexander Totoian and No. 9 seed Dylan Meineke.

The ITF World Junior Tennis team competition began today in Prostejov Czech Republic, with the United States boys the No. 1 seeds and United States girls team the No. 2 seeds. Michael Antonius, Jordan Lee and Teodor Davidov are on the boys team, which won their first match in round robin play today against Morocco. Sylvain Guichard is the team captain. Maggie Sohns, Welles Newman and Raya Kotseva are on the girls team, captained by Thierry Champion. They also went 3-0 in their first round robin match, playing today against Mexico. 

Links to live streaming and live scoring can be found here.

All 16s Top Seeds Advance to Third Round at Kalamazoo, but Second Seed Goode Needs Three Sets; Frusina and Ganesan Begin Title Defense in 18s Doubles; USTA Pro Circuit Update; Americans Sweep Men's Titles at Washington ATP 500

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Kalamazoo MI--

The 18s division had the day off in singles at the USTA Boys Nationals Sunday, giving the 16s the limelight on a second consecutive hot and humid day at K College's Stowe Stadium and WMU's Sorensen Courts.

16s No. 1 seed Gus Grumet defeated Michael Lorenzetti 6-3, 6-2, No. 3 seed Jack Secord beat Jack Reis 6-0, 6-2, but the third left-hander of the top seeds, No. 2 Gavin Goode, struggled with his nerves and the game of Aidan Xu before pulling out a 6-7(4), 6-1, 6-2 victory.

"First match of the tournament, I was pretty nervous," said the 16-year-old from Raleigh North Carolina, who was playing "I had a lot of people watching me in the first set, the nerves kind of got to me. I didn't play a super smart first set, I was kind of playing into his strengths, but I started to play smarter in the second set, getting the ball more to his forehand, but I kind of just had to get the nerves out, really."

Goode found the key to his turnaround in the fourth game of the second set, breaking the 15-year-old from Katy Texas after several deuces, and winning five straight games to go up a break 1-0 in the third set.

"I realized I was playing my backhand line a little too much and he liked that a lot, because I think his backhand was his strength," said Goode, the 16s Easter Bowl champion. "I started mixing up my backhand to his forehand, get a little more cross and that seemed to work pretty well against him."

It wasn't exactly smooth sailing after that for Goode, who was broken in his next two service games in a string of five consecutive breaks, but he did hold for 4-2, got another break to serve for the match. His serve got him out of trouble in the final game, with a good first serve to save a break point, and another service winner to end the two-hour and 57-minute match.

Goode had an ab injury that kept him out of the Clay Courts, but he was healthy enough to practice prior to Kalamazoo, and was feeling good despite the long match in the 90 degree heat. 

"I got a lot of practice in, a lot of rehab every day for my ab, and it feels pretty good, I was ready for this tournament," Goode said. "I was playing a lot of practice matches, but it's obviously a lot different in a tournament, more nerves, not as comfortable."

Goode admitted that his confidence was not high after he dropped the opening set. 

"To be honest, I kind of thought I was going to lose the match after the first set," Goode said. "Going in as the 2 seed, it's not a great result, but I just had to block that thought and just compete well in the second and third set, and I thought I finished it pretty well."

Goode will play No. 33 seed Bryan Assi in the third round Monday afternoon.

 All of the top 16 seeds in the 16s advanced to the third round, and unlike the 18s, who lost both of the Clay Courts finalists in the second round Saturday, Grumet, the champion, and No. 8 seed Andrew Johnson, the finalist, won in straight sets.

A total of 10 seeds lost in their first match in today's second round, five 33 seeds and the 25, 26, 29, 31, and 32 seeds.

The seeds in both 18s and 16s doubles played for the first time on Sunday, and all of the Top 4 seeds advanced.

Defending 18s champions Alex Frusina and Adhithya Ganesan found themselves trailing Daniel Kim and Caden Lee 5-3 in the opening set, but Kim and Lee could not close out the set serving at 5-4, with Frusina and Ganesan claiming ten straight games for a 7-5, 6-0 victory, which extended their Kalamazoo winning streak to seven matches.

No. 2 seeds Cooper Woestendick and Maxwell Exsted, the Australian Open boys doubles champions, defeated Benedict Graft and Ethan Portnoy 6-4, 6-2; No. 3 seeds Benjamin Willwerth and Noah Johnston beat Alex Feies and Kartik Mandla 6-3, 6-4 and No. 4 seeds Alexander Razeghi and Nikita Filin defeated Houston Jacques and Sawyer Severance 7-5, 6-3.

No. 16 seeds Jack Kennedy and Jordan Reznik were down 2-0 and loss of toss for being late for their 6 p.m. match, but managed to overcome that deficit to post a 6-4, 6-2 win over Tobias Luo and Theodore Murphy.

Ryan Cozad and Yannik Alvarez, the top seeds in the 16s, defeated Gregory Bernadsky and Abraham Rosett 6-0, 6-4 and No. 2 seeds Adrien Abarca and Justin Anson beat Maksim Hristov and Henry Lessard 7-5, 6-4.

Both age divisions will play singles and doubles on Monday, starting with 18s at 9 a.m., although there is a 50 percent chance of rain.  Check ustaboys.com for weather information.  

Live streaming for matches at Stowe can be found here: https://ustaboys.com/tickets/live-streaming/

Live scoring can be found for all matches here: https://ioncourt.com/tournaments/669ff8bd38dfcc284365c5af/upcoming

To wrap up the three USTA Pro Circuit events this week, 2023 US Open boys champion Joao Fonseca of Brazil won his first Pro title at the ATP Challenger 75 in Lexington Kentucky. The 17-year-old, seeded No. 6, defeated No. 7 seed Li Tu of Australia 6-1, 6-4 in the final. Top seeds Sem Verbeek(Pacific) of the Netherlands and Andre Goransson(Cal) of Sweden won the doubles title, beating unseeded James Trotter(Ohio State) and Yuta Shimuzu of Japan 6-4, 6-3 in the final.

The W75 for women in Lexington was won by No. 7 seed Sijia Wei of China, who beat former Oklahoma State standout Mananchaya Sawangkaew of Thailand 7-5, 6-4 in today's singles final. 

No. 2 seeds Whitney Osuigwe and Alana Smith(NC State) won the doubles title, beating No. 3 seeds Carmen and Ivana Corley(Oklahoma) 7-6(5), 6-3 in the final.

Qualifier Gavin Young(Michigan) won his first pro title, beating Stanford's Kyle Kang 6-4, 6-3 in today's singles final at the $25,000 tournament in Edwardsville Illinois.

Felix Corwin(Minnesota), whose brother Oscar is competing this week in the Kalamazoo 18s, won the doubles title in Edwardsville  Saturday with Nathan Ponwith(Georgia, Arizona State). The No. 3 seeds defeated No. 4 seeds and Illinois teammates Oliver Okonkwo of Great Britain and Lucas Horve 7-6(6), 2-6, 10-5.

American men swept the titles at the ATP 500 in Washington DC, with No. 4 seeds Jackson Withrow(Texas A&M) and Nathaniel Lammons(SMU) taking the doubles title with a 7-5, 6-3 win over No. 8 seeds Rafael Matos and Marcelo Melo of Brazil. It's the biggest title for Withrow and Lammons, who also won the ATP 250 in Atlanta last week.

And Sebastian Korda won his biggest title, taking the singles championship tonight with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 win over Flavio Cobolli of Italy. It's the second ATP title for the 24-year-old Korda, who will move to a career-high of 18 in Monday's rankings. He is the first American man to win the Washington title since Andy Roddick in 2007 and made the record books with his father Petr, who won the Washington title in 1992, becoming the first father and son to win the same ATP title. For more on the final, see this article from the ATP website.

In the final day of the Olympic Tennis competition in Paris, Novak Djokovic of Serbia won the gold medal, beating Carlos Alcaraz of Spain 7-6(3), 7-6(2). Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini of Italy won the women's gold medal in doubles, beating Diana Shnaider(NC State) and Mirra Andreeva 2-6, 6-1, 10-7. 

Hedgecoe Celebrates an Unhappy Anniversary with Second Round Upset in B18s at Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids Commuter Caldwell Reaches Third Round; US Men Take Olympic Silver and Bronze in Doubles

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Kalamazoo MI--

A year ago today, Drew Hedgecoe was having surgery, unable to compete at the USTA Boys 18s Nationals after having played in the 16s division the previous two years. Today at the Western Michigan University Sorensen Courts, the 18-year-old from Fayetteville North Carolina traded out that fraught memory with a much more joyful one, earning wins in both singles and doubles, with the former a 6-2, 6-4 upset of USTA Clay Courts finalist Ronit Karki, the No. 12 seed.

"I'd never played him, but I've always heard his name and I know he's a great player," said Hedgecoe, a rising senior who has verbally committed to Baylor. "I thought I played really well today, stuck to my game plan. I've known that I've had this kind of level in me for a while, it was just a matter of putting it all together, having my body cooperate. It's good to be healthy and good to be playing like I know I can."

Hedgecoe said his recovery time since the surgery to repair a torn ab muscle wasn't that extensive, but finding his game in the aftermath proved to be an eight month journey.

"It was really, really tough," said Hedgecoe, who is coached by Cameron Moore in Cary North Carolina, more than an hour's drive from his home. "I came back, started playing the L4s because I had no ranking. My first L4 I got rounded by two guys I should not lose to. It took a while, I'd say until late spring, where I started to feel like myself."

Hedgecoe, who won his opening match on Friday 6-2, 6-2, said everything was working today against Karki, who had also reached the Easter Bowl 18s final this spring. 

"I just did a good job of taking the ball early, moving the guy around, dictating with my forehand," said Hedgecoe, who won three consecutive state high school championships. "That's how I want to play. I came forward well and played well when I needed to. The second set was pretty tight, I broke him at 3-all, had a good hold for 5-3, then had a long game at 5-4 to close it out. But I executed when I needed to and had a good game plan going in, so it all kind of lined up a little bit today."

Hedgecoe and his partner Jake Kennedy won their first round doubles match over Shaurya Bharadwaj and Cyrus Zia 6-1, 6-0 to close out the day.

Karki was joined on the upset list by Clay Courts champion Dylan Long, the No. 11 seed, who was beaten by Prathinav Chunduru 6-3, 7-6(5). Karki and Long were the only two top 16 seeds to fall in their opening matches today. Top seed Trevor Svajda, No. 3 seed Kaylan Bigun and No. 4 seed Cooper Woestendick lost a total of six games in their second round wins.  No. 2 seed Darwin Blanch received a walkover due to injury from Aryan Badlani. 

No. 32 seed Simon Caldwell, who reached the quarterfinals in the 16s division last year, played his first 18s match today, beating Aleksandar Andrin 6-1, 6-0. Caldwell, who lives less than an hour away in Grand Rapids, enjoys competing near home.

"I like to have home cooked meals and sleep in my own bed for this tournament," said Caldwell, who turned 17 last month. 

In addition to the comfort level that provides, Caldwell also can lean on the decades of expertise that his coach Tom Walker has at this event. Walker, who developed many Kalamazoo area players, including 2004 18s finalist Scott Oudsema, before purchasing the Grand Rapids Racquet and Fitness in 2017.

"Tom's a man of many words," Caldwell said. "He's a great coach and I love having him. The best piece of advice he's given me for being out here is to just enjoy it, enjoy every minute of playing. You only get so many years at this tournament, a very prestigious and amazing tournament, so just enjoy it, and play free."

The 16s played their first round of singles and doubles today, with the seeds taking the court in singles and doubles on Sunday. With so many matches Saturday after yesterday's cancellation of first round doubles, a late start due to wet courts and hot weather throughout the day, many first round 16s doubles matches are still on court as of 9 p.m.

The 18s do not play singles Sunday, but are scheduled for doubles, with the 16 seeded teams taking the court for the first time. 

My preview of the tournament for Tennis Recruiting Network can be found here.

At the Paris Olympics today, Rajeev Ram(Illinois) and Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) lost in the gold medal match today to Australians John Peers(Middle Tennessee, Baylor) and Matt Ebden 6-7(6), 7-6(1), 10-8. Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul won the bronze medal, beating Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4.  For more on the USA men's Olympic medals, see this article from the USTA.

Qinwen Zheng of China won the women's singles gold medal, defeating Donna Vekic of Croatia 6-2, 6-3. Machac and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic won the mixed gold medal yesterday, beating Zhizhen Zhang and Xinyu Wang of China 6-2, 5-7, 10-8.

The women's doubles gold medal match between Diana Shnaider(NC State) and Mirra Andreeva of Russia and Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini is Sunday, as is the men's gold medal match between Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Carlos Alcaraz of Spain.

My Kalamazoo Preview; Free Survives Oyebog's Comeback, Rain Delay to Reach Second Round in Kalamazoo 18s; First Round Doubles Washed Out; USTA Nationals B12s, G12s, G14s Seeds, Draws

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Kalamazoo MI--

My annual preview of the USTA Boys 18s and 16s National Championships was published today at Tennis Recruiting Network, as I run through the top seeds in both age divisions. Three 16s champions and last year's 18s finalist are in the field this year, while a relatively new set of competitors head up the 16s draw.

The first day of competition at WMU and Kalamazoo College started late due to overnight rain, and the first round of 18s singles finished indoors after a series of afternoon showers. Yet Parker Free managed to overcome all those challenges to come away with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) victory over wild card Joseph Oyebog. 

Free, an 18-year-old from Alabama who will start his freshman year at Samford in a few weeks, was up 4-0 in the third set, only to watch as Oyebog reeled off five straight games.

"When I was up 4-0 he started to lose his energy, and then all of a sudden he started to hit a ton of winners," said Free, who was scheduled to play at 8 a.m. and ended up closing out the match indoors at the Markin Center a few minutes before 4 p.m. "And all of a sudden it's 5-4 him."

Oyebog had called for a trainer after Free won the second set, and at 5-4 was wincing in pain as he approached his chair at changeover.

"He had to get a medical, for the second time, I think he was cramping and something was maybe wrong with his back," Free said. "That kind of changed the momentum and I was able to hold, and then I broke."

Serving for the match at 6-5, 30-0 Free didn't get to match point, with Oyebog looking revitalized. Free saved two break points, but double faulted on the third and a tiebreaker would decide which player would reach Saturday's second round.

Free broke to start the tiebreaker and held his first serve, taking a 2-0 lead when the rain started, nearly three hours after the match began. It was hardly an ideal time, with Free's lead a precarious one, and Oyebog having more than two hours to recover from his physical ailments.

When the decision was made, after a second rainstorm, to finish the first round matches indoors, Oyebog and Free were the first to go on, given how close they were to finishing. But facing an opponent as powerful as Oyebog on indoor courts without an extended warmup wasn't the ideal scenario to hold onto a precarious 2-0 lead in the tiebreaker. 

"I didn't know his serve was that big," said Free. "That's probably the biggest serve I've ever faced, especially in the first set. It seemed like his injury affected it until he was down 4-0 and then he started hitting it massive again. I guess he found an extra gear there. But I knew if I could get in the point, he might spray a couple more balls, and that's what happened at the beginning of the breaker. But towards the end, he started making a lot of balls, and I was super tight there too, so I did the same thing, and it worked."

Oyebog didn't get a first serve in either of his points at 2-5, and lost the second to give Free three match points. Free made a forehand error to squander one, but Oyebog went big on the second and sent a forehand well long to end it.

"That was super nerve-racking," said Free, who faces No. 33 seed Declan Galligan in Saturday's second round. "But this is my last junior tournament, so I came with an excited attitude, whatever happens it's just going to be a fun tournament. I'm just glad I'm here."

The first round of doubles was scheduled for both the 16s and 18s, but those matches were cancelled mid-afternoon. The forecast is much improved for Saturday and Sunday before the rain returns to start next week.

Live streaming of Stowe matches is available through the link at ustaboys.com, with live scoring available via iOnCourt. All of today's first round 18s singles results and match times for Saturday can be found at the USTA PlayTennis tournament site.

The draws for the G18s, B12s, G12s and G14s are now up, with the Top 16 seeds in the 12s and 14s listed below. Click on the headings for the draws.  A complete list of the top 16 seeds in all eight divisions can be found in this google document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mY1xLvdwWGhnIJUUnqCcmHPRGraoGTXQ189DNd_s9Vw/edit?usp=sharing

Girl 14s:

1. Enya Hamilton

2. Daniela Del Mastro

3. Bella Arwood

4. Corinne Winningham

5. Adelyn Gross

6. Molly Widlansky

7. Savannah Schmitz

8. Elle Groslimond

9. Sofia Basto Cabrera

10. Teaghan Jou An Keys

11. Aarini Bhattacharya

12. Ariana Morris

13. Michelle Lee

14. Juliana Diianni

15. Evelynn Kwak

16. Michelle Flyam

Girls 12s:

1. Nadia Poznick

2. Isha Manchala

3. Violetta Mamina

4. Tara Guhan

5. Ava Chua

6. Anna Kapanadze

7. Jacqueline Nick

8. Wendy Fan

9. Jessie Janiak

10. Harshitha Thirugnanam

11. Karena Cross

12. Luca Dupere

13. Christina Li

14. Aimee Peng

15. Cydney Crocker

16. Isabella Bosso

Boys 12s:

1. Daniel Gardality

2. James Borchard

3. Rex Kulman

4. Nathan Lee

5. Blount Williams

6. Michael Chervenkov

7. Pranav Vignesh

8. David Bender

9. Eli Flynn

10. Ayush Ananthuni

11. Matthew Finn

12. Jason Ye

13. Wyatt Markham

14. Srijan Gourineni

15. Ishaan Marla

16. Ciaran O'Donnell

At the Paris Olympics, Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz lost in the semifinals to Matt Ebden and John Peers of Australia 7-5, 6-2, so will play for a bronze medal on Saturday against Tomas Machac and Andrew Pavlasek of the Czech Republic. 

Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) and Rajeev Ram(Illinois) will play Ebden and Peers(Middle Tenn, Baylor) for the gold medal Saturday guaranteeing a collegiate gold medalist.

Diana Shnaider(NC State) and Mirra Andreeva of Russia will play for the women's doubles gold medal against Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini of Italy on Sunday. 

USTA National B14s Seeds and Draws; Defending Champions Frusina and Ganesan Return as Top Seeds in Kalamazoo 18s; Jovic and Grant Seeded No. 1 in San Diego 18s; Ram and Krajicek Reach Gold Medal Match in Olympic Men's Doubles

While Kalamazoo is the first of the eight USTA National Championships to begin, with Friday the opening day of singles for the 18s, all the divisions will begin this weekend.

The draws have been out for the girls 16s, and the boys 16s and 18s, with the seeds for those divisions listed in my posts of Wednesday(girls 16s and 18s) and Tuesday(boys 16s and 18s).

The girls 18s, girls 14s, girls 12s and boys 12s draws have yet to be posted, but the boys 14s singles and doubles draws were posted tonight and the top 16 seeds in singles are below.

B14s
1. Tristan Stratton
2. Victor Pignaton
3. Sebastian Godoy
4. Akshay Mirmira
5. Gadin Arun
6. Alexander Totoian
7. Tabb Tuck
8. Ivan Rybak
9. Dylan Meineke
10. Mikaeel Alibaig
11. Carter Jauffret
12. Vedant Bhende
13. Antanas Daugis
14. Eli Kaminski
15. Zesen Wang
16. Rafael Pawar

2023 Kalamazoo 18s double champions

Doubles begins tomorrow in Kalamazoo for both divisions, so those draws are up, with the seeds below. Frusina and Ganesan are the defending champions.

B18s doubles seeds

1. Alex Frusina and Adhithya Ganesan

2. Cooper Woestendick and Maxwell Exsted

3. Noah Johnston and Benjamin Willwerth

4. Nikia Filin and Alexander Razeghi

5. Ian Mayew and Kase Schinnerer

6. Kaylan Bigun and Trevor Svajda

7. Dylan Long and Nicholas Patrick

8. Max Pettingell and Jack Satterfield

9. Jordan Chang and Ronit Karki

10. Nolan Balthazor and Mitchell Sheldon

11. Matthew Forbes and Dylan Jaen

12. Abhinav Chunduru and Prathinav Chunduru

13. Simon Caldwell and Zachary Cohen

14. Meecah Bigun and Mitchell Lee

15. Maximus Dussault and Dominick Mosejczuk

16. Jack Kennedy and Jordan Reznik

B16s doubles seeds

1. Yannik Alvarez and Ryan Cozad

2. Adrien Abarca and Justin Anson

3. Sutton Severance and Lucas Smith

4. Gabriel Jessup and Arjun Prabhakar

5. Yashin Krishnakumar and James Quattro

6. Tyler Lee and Brayden Tallakson

7. Gus Grumet and Arin Pallegar

8. Ford McCollum and Jack Secord

9. Theo Hegarty and Jordan Papadopoulos

10. Gavin Goode and Mason Taube

11. John Gentek and Austin He

12. Noah Bayon and Williams Freshwater

13. Graeme Angus and Samuel He

14. Hunter Nelson and Micah Ward

15. Nicolas Pedraza and Erik Schinnerer

16. Andre Alcantara and Liam Alvarez

2024 Wimbledon girls doubles champions

The girls 16s and 18s doubles draws have not been posted, but the seeds have been and are listed below. Defending champions Kate Fakih and Olivia Center are the No. 4 seeds in San Diego; Australian Open and Wimbledon girls doubles champions Tyra Grant and Iva Jovic are the top seeds.

G18s doubles seeds

1. Iva Jovic and Tyra Grant

2. Mia Yamakita and Akasha Urhobo

3. Alanis Hamilton and Kayla Chung

4. Olivia Center and Kate Fakih

5. Sophie Webster and Ashton Bowers

6. Anya Murthy and Valerie Glozman

7. Victoria Osuigwe and Maya Iyengar

8. Kristina Penickova and Annika Penickova

9. Linda Ziets-Segura and Kady Tannenbaum

10. Kenzie Nguyen and Emily Deming

11. Lani Brotman and Katiana Gonzalez

12. Shannon Lam and Thea Frodin

13. Jessica Bernales and Christasha McNeil

14. Claire An and Mia Slama

15. Ariana Pursoo and Monika Ekstrand

16. Bianca Momlnar and Alyssa Ahn

G16s doubles seeds

1. Emerey Gross and Anna Bennett

2. Carrie-Anne Hoo and Danielle Young

3. Carlota Moreno and Addy Rogin

4. Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann and Reagan Levine

5. Sara Shumate and Bella Payne

6. Catherine Rennard and Isabelle DeLuccia

7. Rachel Gee and Sephi Sheng

8. Zimora McKnight and Anna Bugaienko

9. Karlin Schock and Thara Gowda

10. Brooke Kwon and Sydney Barnhart

11. Olivia Dartawan and Sasha Miroshnichenko

12. Nola Jones and Angela Chen

13. Andi Anderson and Lucia Fuduric

14. Aya Manning and Autumn Xu

15. Maria Navarro and Lyla Messler

16. Adla Lopez and Nancy Lee

I hope to have links to all the draws in Friday's post.

The USA Olympic team will return from Paris with at least one medal, with No. 4 seeds Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek advancing to Saturday's final in men's doubles. No. 3 seeds Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul could join them, after Fritz and Paul advanced to the semifinals with a win over Andy Murray and Dan Evans of Great Britain and will play the Australian team of Matt Ebden and John Peers for a chance to play for a gold medal against Ram and Krajicek. Thursday's results and Friday's schedule from USTA:

RESULTS - (THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2024)

 

(1) Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) def. (9) Tommy Paul (USA) 63 76(7)

(4) Austin Krajicek/Rajeev Ram (USA) def. Tomas Machac/Adam Pavlasek (CZE) 62 62

(3) Taylor Fritz/Tommy Paul (USA) def. Daniel Evans/Andy Murray (GBR) 62 64

 

TOMORROW’S ORDER OF PLAY (FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2024)

 

(3) Taylor Fritz/Tommy Paul (USA) vs Matthew Ebden/John Peers (AUS) - Court Suzanne-Lenglen – nb 14:00