The Road to THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP 2024
Aug 24: USTA Boys & Girls 14U and 18U Flighted, Bethesda
Aug 24-25: USTA Level 6 Boys & Girls 16U, Princeton
Aug 25: USTA 12U Green & 10U Orange, Bethesda
In an incredible display up and down the northeast corridor, Tennis Central produced 20 different champions in one weekend of tournament play. A record 113 players came out as spots were on the line for qualifying for THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP 2024 in the final week to gain positioning in the rankings.
At Princeton's 200 point level six major tournament., Ella Brown, won with authority giving up just three games in the final. Meanwhile, with top seed Jay Harper bowing out, unseeded Noah Rodberg took the reins of the tournament by overcoming the number two seed, Drew Bezio, who himself in the semis had had to outlast a major scare from the host school's incoming freshman out of London, Bryan Kim Short.
Holton Arms School was a carnival of tennis over the weekend. Groups of six made up the Boys 14U, where two unbeaten champions emerged. Samuel Sukhenko and Junhao Matthew Wang could not be stopped in five victories. But previous champion Nigel Killingham and Sebastian Johnson came close, both at 6-4 to Sukhenko. Johnson also won their battle for second by the same margin.
Matters were somewhat grittier in the red division. Teddy O'Brien suffered through a tiebreak, and one loss, but he was able to clinch the championship with the 4–1 record, by virtue of his 6-1 toppling of Irving Zou and a slightly superior 28-18 game record.
Six players contested the Boys 18U championship, with the top two seeds winning each group in style. Tour regular Solomon Ravitz went 2-0 in the first group. But don't let the record fool you – Haonan Wang played a brilliant final, getting two points in the 7-5 tiebreak from nabbing the pennant himself.
Similarly, in the other division, Barrett Atwell and Luke Metha set the rune armies against each other in a drawn out battle. It also went to a tiebreak to decide the trophy's holder. After Luke won the first tiebreak, and Atwell grabbed the elongated second set, it was the latter, who won the tight tiebreak for the marbles.
Three girls went undefeated on Saturday to win their groups. Silvia Gomez Hermida, Alithea McDermott, and Erica Kober took gold medals by winning each of their four matches. Emma Hou kept Kober guessing until it ended 7-5. But the other two champions held iron fists in their conquest of the group stage.
No fewer than ten groups of play marked Sunday's return to Holton for the younger kids. Green champions Whitaker Smith, Jay Park, Ian Kowats, Sania Venkatesan, and Alexander Keoely won round robins of five.
Karthik Heda, Rose Kangarloo, and Zach Krieger resumed top form in previous tournaments with titles here in the Orange category. Eric Qiu and David Gomez Hermida joined them on the top step of the podium.
Krieger tied two others in the standings—former champion Vihaan Vivek and Jahzarah Taylor—but won the tiebreaks to be named medalist.
The barrage and variety of tournament matches meant that players were jockeying for position in the penultimate weekends leading up to the tour championship 2024.
The Tour makes a sole stop in Princeton for Labor Day weekend before returning to Holton Arms for not just a USTA event, but also the tour championship the following week. First for the holiday it’s a green ball Saturday followed by Sunday’s Level 7 16U at Princeton Day School.
Tour Rankings
Upheaval marked the 18U standings for the first time in quite a while. Ravitz jumped to third, while newcomer in Princeton Ella Brown will join the Top 10 at the next juncture.
Vihan Jain got all the way to No. 8 at 12U and No. 18 on the 14U Tour and qualified for the Tour Championship at the former, moving up eight spots into the Top 10.
The races got somewhat closer at the top, but still no baton changed hands. Siena Auzoux stays within 35 points of Shiloh at 12U, with the Tour Championship's huge haul of points sure to decide both the tournament champion and the year-end No. 1.
Jon Ozenci still leads both 14U and 16U Tours by a large margin. He also cut Atlee Hilliard's lead at 18U to just 19 points.
Vincent Finisdore clawed up to the Top 5, and Ayaan Ghosh secured his ticket to the Tour Championship by entering the Top 10, both at the 10U level.
THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP 2024
September 8, Holton-Arms School
The Tour Championship 2024 qualifiers are set. They will receive invitations to the September 8 year-ending finals, with the rest of the open spots (if any) filled by registered players in order of their qualifying positions.
These positions are the groups they've qualified for over the year---because of age changes, perhaps not the final age groups they will compete in.
10U Boys
Shiloh Auzoux
Leonardo Martinez
Vincent Finisdore
Austin Johnson
Finn Jackson
Ayaan Ghosh
10U Girls
Siena Auzoux
Lara Dabney
Kamsiyonna Odejiofor
Shannon Bu
Meghan Dorsey
Tori Law
12U Boys
Elijah Park
Vihan Jain
Zain Beg
Alexander Yu
William Van Horne
Suvin Thayavaliyill
12U Girls
Likitha Gaddipati
Zahra Doriwala
Ivanna Baguma
Diya Nain
Anasofia Bladuell
Valentina Rosales
14U Boys
Jon Ozenci
Carter Mills
Spencer Weiss
Gaibriel Gorbach
Logan Lyons
Deniz Ozenci
14U Girls
Lara Isler
Bridget Zimmermann
Nicoletta Savvas
Serena Provinse
Aditya Bhandati
Elizabeth S
16U Boys
Richard Caddell
Arthur Rosenstein
Ashvin Ellentuck
Solomon Ravitz
Shreyash Upadhyay
Andrew Kinnear
16U Girls
Atlee Hilliard
Marie Boy
Caroline Peterson
Isabella Sofia Martelli
Jessica Wilkinson
Brooke Hall
18U Boys
Sumaer Sarangal
Braylen Garcia
Colton Castelli
Evan Hogue
Quentin Cole
Braden Walter
18U Girls
Honor Saxe
Katelyn Gray
Josephine Saxe
Giselle Snowden
Lindsay Shen
Sofia Gerhardt
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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