Girls National 16s and 18s Draws, Seeds; Vickery Reaches Bank of the West Quarterfinals; Southern Wins USTA Girls 18s Team Event

The girls 16s and 18s in San Diego have posted their seeds and draws already.  See if you can guess who's missing from the 18s seeding list below:

1. Louisa Chirico
2. CiCi Bellis
3. Katerina Stewart
4. Brooke Austin
5. Tornado Alicia Black
6. Jessie Aney
7. Francesca DiLorenzo
8. Caroline Lampl
9. Kelly Chen
10. Katharine Fahey
11. Andie Daniell
12. Alexis Nelson
13. Ena Shibahara
14. Sofia Kenin
15. Josie Kuhlman
16. Ellie Halbauer
17. Gabby Andrews
17. Usue Arconada
17. Caroline Dolehide
17. Alexis Franco
17. Michaela Gordon
17. Emma Higuchi
17. Jessica Ho
17. Meghan Kelley
17. Kaitlyn McCarthy
17. Brienne Minor
17. Bianca Moldovan
17. Alexandria Najarian
17. Ingrid Neel
17. Christina Rosca
17. Gabby Smith
17. Olivia Sneed

I had to look through the entries myself, to investigate a nagging suspicion I had, and sure enough, once I got to the "Ps," I saw it. Peggy Porter is not seeded.  Porter, who will be 19 in November, is 525 in the WTA rankings, higher than Katerina Stewart, Brooke Austin and Ellie Halbauer, all of whom are seeded. Stewart has continued to play junior tournaments, but both Austin and Halbauer have, like Porter, opted out of junior competition this year.

These oversights are not always fatal, depending on the draw, but this one could prove to be, as Porter is slated to meet top seed Louisa Chirico in the second round.  That will be a must-see match for spectators, but it's not good for either player, or the tournament. 

That nagging feeling of someone missing also could have been centered on Clay Court finalist Kennedy Shaffer, but she wasn't overlooked for seeding. Rather,  she is not in the field, although she was intending to play when I last spoke to her in Memphis.

The 16s seeds:
1. Ryan Peus
2. Kayla Day
3. Makenna Jones
4. Alexandra Sanford
5. Kalani Soli
6. Chiara Lommer,
7. Isabella Lorenzini
8. Maria Mateas
9. Kylie McKenzie
10. Maddie Pothoff
11. Madeline Meredith
12. Morgan Coppoc
13. Samantha Martinelli
14. Grace Joyce
15. Nadia Gizdova
16. Bess Waldram
17. Abby Altick,
17. Madison Battaglia
17. Chandler Carter
17. Abigail Chiu
17. Cameron Corse
17. Victoria Flores
17. Annette Goulak
17. Riley McQuaid
17. Lexi Milunovich
17. Nami Otsuka
17. Gabby Pollner
17. Adriana Reami
17. Sydney Riley
17. Jada Robinson
17. Rebecca Weissmann
17. Sabrina Xiong

There are some tough unseeded players in the 16s, including Dominique Schaefer, Alexa Graham, Ashley Lahey, Ndindi Ndunda, Jada Hart and Abigail Desiatnikov.

Last year's National 18s champion Sachia Vickery is having the best week of her career at the WTA Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.  Vickery, who qualified over the weekend, defeated Monica Puig 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-1 today to reach the quarterfinals. The 19-year-old from Florida will play fellow American Varvara Lepchenko, who upset No. 2 seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland this afternoon 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, for a place in the semifinals.  Stanford rising sophomore Carol Zhao takes on No. 5 seed Anna Ivanovic of Serbia in their second round match Thursday.

 

The USTA National 18s Girls Team Championship was completed yesterday in Claremont, California, with the Southern section squeezing past Midwest 4-3.  Amy Yang clinched the win for Southern at the No. 4 singles position. A screenshot of the results in the final is below: