The Road to THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP 2024
Aug 31: USTA 12U Green, Princeton
Sept 1: USTA 16U Level 6, Princeton
Tennis Central gave its DMV juniors a Labor Day respite before the year-end finals of the Tour Championship this weekend, as well as the largest adult tournament Tennis Central has ever put on. But up in Princeton, the 12U and 16U players were hard at work.
Somehow, on Sunday, rain only delayed the Princeton USTA 16U event by about 15 minutes. One Junior had a very unique reason to pray for dry skies.
When Jasmine Sih-Feiertag met Laura David for the championship Sunday morning, the clock was ticking. Dressed in her Ralph Lauren official gear, she was due in New York within two hours to serve as a ballgirl at the US Open.
Jasmine's first match went late and put pressure on finishing the final against a powerful David who swung for the fences and won her semifinal easily. Then the first set tiebreak went on until Jasmine saved set points to win 8-6.
She closed out the second set 4-2 before booking it with her parents to the city.
On the boys side, Steven Osiecki. He found that the second time would be the charm for him. He surprised the top two seeds to win his first Tennis Central tournament. Having slipped by No. 1 seed Wyatt Beidelman in two tiebreaks, he met Ryan Litvinsky in the final and prevented him from ever truly finding his footing.
The younger players used the green balls this weekend, and each of the boys semifinalists produced stellar matches. Noah Rao and Luca Tang bowed out at that stage in tiebreaks, the former in an incredible 10-8 display against Kaleb Huang.
Both finalists tired as the final kicked off. Felix Chang held up against his rival with whom he's shared a coach.
That was the largest tournament of the weekend. For the girls, Kelly Wu marched on to victory speedily. It was the semifinal that produced the most fireworks and a fatigued opponent for the top seed to face. Anika Maru had won that 7-4 in a tiebreak to reach the last round.
This weekend, get ready for the Tour Championship, the season-ending tournament that pits the highest-ranked Tennis Central juniors against each other to determine the year's champion. Also, on Saturday, incredible response has made the Tennis Central adult tournament at Holton-Arms a must-attend event.
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!
Comments