Hey Tennis Friends!
One month ago, in order to continue to feature more junior tennis on my site, I checked in on the USTA Girls’ 16s & 18s National Championships at the Barnes Family Tennis Center in San Diego, California.
At stake in these Championships is the title of National Champion, and with it a Wild Card entry into the main draw of the US Open Women’s Championships (for the 18s Champion) and a Wild Card into the US Open Junior Championships (for the 16s Champion).
As usual, there was so much going on that I couldn’t have possibly included everything that was happening in this video report. This is why I always encourage you to get out to these events, to choose for yourself the matches that you want to watch!
The results for the matches that I featured in this video report are:
GIRLS’ 18 SINGLES Semifinals (with seedings)
(17)Victoria Duval d. (7)Brooke Austin 6-4, 3-6, 6-4
(3)Alexandra Kiick d. (6)Chalena Scholl 6-3, 6-3
GIRLS’ 16 SINGLES Championship (with seedings)
(2)Kimberly Yee d. (6)Katerina Stewart 6-2, 6-2
GIRLS’ 18 DOUBLES Championship (with seedings)
(1)Samantha Crawford / Alexandra Kiick
d. (2)Chalena Scholl / Sachia Vickery 7-6(5), 6-3
Here is the result of the girls’ 18s final, which was played the next day:
GIRLS’ 18 SINGLES Championship (with seedings)
(17)Victoria Duval d. (3)Alexandra Kiick 3-6, 6-1, 6-0
FOLLOW-UP:
Since Victoria Duval won this event, she received a wildcard entry into the women’s main draw singles of the US Open. Her first round match was against Kim Clijsters. With a respectable showing, Duval lost the match, 6-3, 6-1, against the retiring veteran.
Duval then moved on to the US Open Junior tournament where she took out the number nine and three seeds, on her way to the semifinal round. In the semifinal round, Victoria lost to Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit, 6-2, 7-6(4).
Alexandra Kiick was taken out in the first round of women’s main draw singles qualifying, 7-5, 6-4, in a tough battle with Bulgaria’s Dia Evtimova.
In the junior US Open singles, Kiick was taken out in the second round, 6-0, 6-7(4), 7-6(4), by the number twelve seed (who played Duval in the semis), Anett Kontaveit.
The doubles team of Alexandra Kiick / Samantha Crawford got their main draw entry into the US Open. In the first round, they were taken out by the more experienced team of Liga Dekmeijere and Mervana Jugic-Salkic in a tough three-setter: 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4.
In the US Open junior doubles, Kiick/Crawford were taken out, 6-1, 6-2, in the second round by the number eight seeds, Antonia Lottner and Kathinka Von Deichmann.
Samantha Crawford, however, made it all the way through some impressive opponents in the US Open women’s singles qualifying, including veterans Eleni Daniilidou and Tennis Friend, Marie-Eve Pelletier. In the first round of the women’s main draw, Crawford went down to Great Britain’s Laura Robson, 6-3, 7-6(8).
Samantha was playing a lot of tennis during this tournament, as she also made the main draw of the mixed doubles with partner, and Tennis Friend, Mitchell Krueger. They lost in the first round to the number six seeded team of Andrea Hlavackova and yet another Tennis Friend, Mahesh Bhupathi, 6-2, 6-4.
In the US Open juniors, Samantha Crawford made it into the semifinals of the girls’ singles after taking out the number eleven seed, as well as the number eight seed, Sachia Vickery. She battled through a tough semifinal, against the number four seeded German, Antonia Lottner, and made it to the finals with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 win.
The final for the US Open Girls’ Singles Championship took just over an hour as Crawford won 5 of 6 break points and fired off six aces to beat Anett Kontaveit 7-5, 6-3!
And, finally, Kimberly Yee, who is only fifteen years old, went down 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of junior US Open singles, to the number fourteen seed, Canada’s Carol Zhao. She also lost her first round of junior US Open doubles, however, it was not with the same partner that she won the National 16s Title with.
For more complete scores and entries to this tournamnet, follow this link:
2012 USTA Girls’ National Championships
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I’ll see you next time, with more tennis, . . . outside the lines!
– Marcus Tennis
