The Road to THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP 2024
Aug 11: USTA Boys & Girls 12U and 16U, Bethesda
As the 12U Tour became the first to eclipse four hundred entrants since the Tennis Central Junior Circuit began, forty-seven players graced the courts at Holton arms last weekend for a terrific end to the USTA Level 7 boys and girls 12U and 16U events. It's one of the highest numbers ever for a single day of play, and the play certainly did not disappoint, especially in the girls 16U final.
Ava Fumich had to earn her way through to the final despite entering as the top seed. She narrowly escaped Victoria Taylor in the semifinal that went to a tiebreak, which Fumich won 7-3.
Xioni Crawford's tough prelim came in the first round when Sophie Beg got to 6-4 before bowing out. But the final that captivated, almost as much as the Paris Olympics, was their toughest match of the day.
Crawford and Fumich tied at 5-5 in the tiebreak to decide the championship before Crawford clawed two points in a battle of wills. The winner claimed her first Tennis Central event.
Celebrated just as much were the combatants in the boys 12U final. No strangers to Tennis Central glory, the tour veterans, Leonardo Martinez and Edward Bogdanovsky clashed for the championship. Martinez's score lines leading up to the final were not so close, but he did have to overcome the top seed in order to get there. Meanwhile, Bogdanovsky found a similar route to the final to the one Fumich took. He needed a tiebreak to get through the semifinal.
But in the end, Bogdanovsky secured the championship by winning a tight set, still controlled, 6–4. Martinez had the last laugh in the rankings---his incredible recent success places him No. 9 overall, eight positions higher than last week.
The biggest rankings story of the weekend, though, involved the battle for the gold medal position on the 12U Tour. Had Shiloh Auzoux not entered the events this week, his points from last year would have evaporated leaving him a few points shy of his rival Siena Auzoux. In turn, had Siena entered the tournaments this weekend, she might have eclipsed him after a long reign atop the podium. Only two points separated the two heading into the second week of August.
But as it was, Shiloh won his first round at the 12U tournament before losing in a tiebreak in the quarterfinals, enough to give him twenty points and an eighteen-point cushion at No. 1.
The two larger tournaments of sixteen players each belonged to the boys side, where at the 16U level Nigel Killingham and Gabriel Gorbach contested their final. Gorbach scored high this weekend, piercing the Top 5 by shooting six spots into the No. 4 position. Spencer Weiss also made a major move to get into the Top 10.
Cameron Lucci also enhanced his rankings more than most with his 35-point performance this weekend, obtaining the No. 33 ranking by improving 22 spots. Fumich, who had played on the Tour before but had allowed her points to expire, debuted again at No. 42, 240 places above her last ranking.
No. 1 seed Adura Akiwumi bolstered her already robust Tour rankings resume with the girls 12U title. Her performance in the final was untouchable, but she was pushed to a difficult finish in the semis by Shelby Shivers.
Tennis Central keeps going with a tournament every weekend until Labor Day. And in Princeton the action kicks off again this weekend, also running through Labor Day, with two major Level 6 affairs right off the bat.
2024 Points Change
A change to the points applied to higher-level tournaments from lower levels should reflect ages and skills better from now on. It used to be that all points were halved when applied to a higher age group's rankings. Now, the points are halved each step up the ladder, not just once.
So a player can no longer earn 80 points at 10U and count them as 40 at 16U. They would be halved at 12U (40 points), again at 14U (20 points), then again at 16U (10 points). It provides the incentive without disrupting the older players' earnings too much.
However, a younger player earning points in an older tournament, much as Arnav Nadikatla did in this Tour Championship edition, is still a sure way to rise faster in those rankings.
Remember the newly added feature to the rankings: the Plus / Minus, which will tell you how far up or down the player has moved within the last week.
The full tables now look like this.
Each weekend this spring and summer, Tennis Central is bringing you USTA and UTR tournaments at Holton-Arms School. Earn points for advancing through each round, just like on the pro tours, and qualify for the TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP at season's end.
Bigger events offer more points, with the TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP offering the most, as well as prizes.
Check here for updates each week to the Tennis Central Tour Rankings, a 52-week points system based on the pro tours, as well as recaps of all the action and photos. We'll post the 2024 schedule soon!
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