Boca Raton Tennis Player Wins Singles Title at USTA National Winter Championships
The USTA today announced that top young juniors Austen Huang (16, Elk Grove, Calif.) and Jessica Failla (18, Ramona, Calif.) won the USTA National Winter Championships Boys’ and Girls’ 18s singles titles last week in Scottsdale, Ariz., each earning wild card entries into future USTA Pro Circuit events.
Huang, rated No. 4 in December’s USTA Boys’ 16s national rankings and as the No. 14 recruit in the Class of 2017 by TennisRecruiting.net, beat top-seeded and defending National Winter Champion William Genesen, of Tulsa, Okla., 6-3, 0-6, 6-1. Failla, who is in her freshman season at USC, beat 12th-seeded Alyvia Jones, a 15-year old from Midland, Mich., 6-3, 6-1.
The National Winter Championships consisted of 128 singles players and 64 doubles teams in the 18s, 16s, 14s and 12s age divisions. They were played on outdoor hard courts at Scottsdale Ranch Park (18s and 16s) and the Reffkin Tennis Center in Tucson, Ariz. (14s and 12s).
Top-seeded Sara Choy and No. 6 seed Christian Alshon won the Girls’ and Boys’ 16s singles titles, respectively. Choy, a high school sophomore from Palo Alto, Calif., beat San Diegan Hannah Zhao, 6-4, 6-4, while Alshon, from Boca Raton, Fla., defeated top-seeded Carson Haskins, of Ballwin, Mo., 6-4, 4-6, 7-5.
A pair of sisters from Los Angeles swept the Girls’ 14s and 12s singles titles. Mae Canete won the Girls’ 14s singles title, beating Gabriella Price, of Montebello, N.Y., 6-1, 6-4, while Christine Canete swept the Girls’ 12s singles and doubles titles, beating her doubles partner – Katrina Scott, of Woodland Hills., Calif. – in the singles final, 6-2, 6-2.
Ryder Jackson, of Irvine, Calif., toppled Stefan Leustian, of Mather, Calif., 7-5, 3-6, 6-2, to win the Boys’ 14s singles title. Nishesh Basavareddy, of Carmel, Ind., won the Boys’ 12s singles championship by beating Samuel Landau, of Los Angeles, 6-7(1), 6-1, 6-2. Laundau won the Boys’ 14s doubles title, with Texan Andrew Chang.
Each year, more than 120,000 players compete in USTA junior tournaments. Players compete in levels of competition through earned advancement in the 10s, 12s, 14s, 16s and 18s age divisions. USTA junior tournaments help kids take their game as far as they want—high school, college or pros—or just have fun competing.
