The Road to THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP 2024
September 8 - The Tour Championship
Last weekend's Tour Championship wound up the largest edition of Tennis Central's year-end championships held so far. The event crowned four major champions, plus another draw gold medalist, and ten year-end No. 1 players.
Gavin Zhang grabbed the 10U major title in a thrilling finish against Mehgan Dorsey, who almost missed the tournament altogether. The tiebreaker went 10-5 to Zhang in the final.
Dorsey had earned her way into the Tour Championship but registered at the eleventh hour, producing a silver medal for her persistence and perhaps a date with travel teams to come.
The drama was all on the line at 12U with both leaders on the Tour reaching opposite semifinals. A result in favor of Siena Auzoux to travel a round past rival Shiloh Auzoux would place her above him in one of the rankings. Tiago Eozenou eliminated Shiloh in an incredible 11-9 tiebreak. But Diya Nain stifled a changing of the guard in winning the 10-4 semifinal over Siena.
When the two victors met in the final, Eozenou won Tour Championship glory with a dominant display. His exploits were enough to catapult him almost to the top of the yearly Tour rankings. He'll finish inside the Top 5 at the 14U level while ending up just seventy points shy of Shiloh Auzoux for the 12U title, in third place.
Because of all the major points on offer this weekend and the dropping of last year's Tour Championship points from all players' sums, it was as if an earthquake hit the Top 10 lists on each age group's Tour. Dorsey crept eight places up into the Top 3 on the 10U Tour, though Auzoux still holds a sizable lead there.
Zhang debuted in the Top 10 despite one 20-point performance a few months ago.
By far the most populous category, the middle age group sparkled in two divisions. Spencer Weiss led the major event of eleven combatants, taking the final against J. Wang in straight sets. But he required two tense three setters to get there. Dealing with Serena Provinse and Dylan Dang proved no easy task.
Weiss claims his first Tour Championship while Zaki Rajkumar wins the laurels from the alternate event, a full eighty points to rival a standard win on Tour. Weiss was able to reach within eighty points of Tour leader Jon Ozenci, who has held a firm grip on both 14U and 16U titles for an extended time now. But Lara Isler's performance in the opening rounds of the Tour Championship earned her the year-end No. 1 ranking for 14U girls.
The top division saw a throwback to the original three player groups to decide a Tour Championship. Solomon Ravitz went 2-0 in his bid to rise rapidly up the leaderboard. The change was enough to give Ravitz the edge over longtime leader Atlee Hilliard for the year-end No. 1 position, the only one to change hands after the tournament.
Ella Brown became the closest Princeton-based player to contend for a title, despite the few tournaments held there in comparison to the DMV yet. She finished just one position behind Marie Boy, who won the crown with a 50-point display in May that, after Hilliard's points being dropped for last year, carried her a few positions higher.
Overall thirty-eight players took part, an increase from the 2023 gathering. These champions won their silverware, based on their performance on the day.
A further seven players ended the Tennis Central Junior Circuit year from a possible ten spots at the top of the Tour rankings thanks to the points they accumulated in many tournaments since the last Tour Championship. These are the players so honored:
Tennis Central Junior Circuit
Tour No. 1 Players, 2023-24
Boys 12U No. 1: Shiloh Auzoux*
Girls 12U No. 1: Siena Auzoux
Boys 14U & 16U No. 1: Jon Ozenci*
Girls 14U No. 1: Lara Isler
Girls 16U No. 1: Isabella Sofia Martelli
Boys 18U No. 1: Solomon Ravitz*
Girls 18U No. 1: Marie Boy
*overall No. 1s
The Tour Championship 2024
Major Champions
10U: Gavin Zhang
12U: Tiago Eozenou
14U: Spencer Weiss
16U-18U: Solomon Ravitz
The Tour winds back to Holton Arms again for both days this weekend, hitting each age group in Level 7 USTA play. Princeton takes on a Level 6 major for Sept 21-22, when Holton Arms hosts its own major--a Dominant Duo.
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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