The Road to THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP 2024
Despite a lead-up of rainouts midweek, USTA Coed Green and Orange events this weekend at Holton Arms shook down the thunder. Fourteen groups of four competed for individual championships and rankings points on the 10U and 12U Tours.
Chloe Conradi won the closest race of the afternoon. In the only group that ended in a three-way tie for first place, Michael Vitale and Andrew Yu also went 2-1. But Conradi had the best game record at 10-5 to claim the title, defeating Vitale 4-1 with enough margin to ensure it.
Another winner at 10U was Tori Law, whose final match with Emerson Oberan decided the championship. A Tour veteran, Law won 4-2 to increase her ranking further. Having won her group on March 16, she climbs into the No. 16 spot on the Tour.
Christian Yamada was pushed to the limit at the goal line, where Tyler Jiang proved his stiffest competition in the small Group 6. A win for Jiang would have forced another three-way tie for first, possibly earning the championship despite an opening round loss to Lily Ramirez, but Yamada held firm at 4-2.
At the 12U tournament William Hedrick returned for more dominance, dropping not a single game en route to a 12-0 finish and another championship. Nandhan Arun accomplished the same feat in Group 6.
That puts Hedrick into the Top 30 in the 10U Tour, and debuting at No. 46 one step above on the 12U side.
The best two matches of the day were contested under similar circumstances.
One belonged to Akhil Reddy and Yiyi Liu, both of whom won their first two Group 5 matches and faced off to determine the champion. It was only one of two matches in either tournament to get to 3-3 and a sudden death game. Reddy took match point and along with it the gold medal.
Group 8 went down to the same wire. Unbeaten Zoe Anabella Vasquez and Zain Beg, both no strangers to winning Tour events, met for a climactic clash in the afternoon. Vazquez prevailed 4-3 to wear the crown.
Beg was hoping to secure an improvement on his No. 13 ranking, but it wasn't to be this weekend. He's only 80 points away from the Top 10 but needed five more to unseat Suvin Thayavalliyil and get as high as No. 12.
Leonardo Martinez had to work hard for his money as well in the tightest group that was decided without tiebreaks. First slipping past Micah Taxin 4-2 to drop Taxin into a third place harsh for such a fine performance, Martinez contended with Adam Bournissa in a de facto final, as both were 2-0. But Martinez outlasted the successful-on-Tour Bournissa, again by the score of 4-2. Having played more than debutante Martiznez, Bournissa gets to No. 36 on the 10U Tour.
There wasn't much to report on the Top 10s among the older age groups, with just one week of standings dropping and no events this week. However, Braden Walter did enter the Top 10 on the 14U Tour, increasing two spots after David Gong waved goodbye to old points.
Austin Johnson and Finn Jackson flipped spots in the Top 10 of the 10U Tour, as group champion this week Mehgan Dorsey joined Tori Law as the largest beneficiary. Her title improved her 51 spots to No. 33.
April 28 marks the last tournament date of the month as the Tour winds back toward Holton Arms for the UTR Central College Placement Open. Upwards of 60 players will make the trek for more glory.
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!