The nation’s best juniors in the 16s and 18s divisions will once again close out their seasons in Orlando, as the USTA National Campus is set to host the 2018 USTA National Winter Championships, part of the USTA adidas Junior National Championship Series. Play will get underway Saturday, December 29 and run through Friday, January 4, when the singles champions will be crowned.

Each singles draw is made up of 128 of the best players from across the United States with a feed-in consolation through the quarterfinal round. The main draw will play best-of-three tiebreak sets; all consolation matches will play a 10-point match tiebreak in lieu of a full third set.

For the doubles draws, each will feature 64 talented duos competing in a single-elimination draw with a third-place playoff. The scoring format will be two tiebreak sets with a 10-point match tiebreak in lieu of a full third set until the semifinals. All semifinal, final, and third-place playoff matches are the best-of-three tiebreak sets.

Orlando native Jack Anthrop has earned top billing in the boys’ 16s draw. Anthrop has experienced a wealth of success on the courts of the USTA National Campus over the past 12 months, winning two doubles and one singles crowns while also finishing second in another singles event. His fall schedule was spent on the Junior ITF Circuit, where he collected a title in Lexington, South Carolina, and took second in Austin, Texas. In his most recent action, Anthrop made a run to the singles quarterfinals at the Eddie Herr International while also taking runner-up honors in doubles. He will be looking for much better results at this year’s Winter Championships after losing in the opening round in both singles and doubles in 2017 as an unseeded player.

Rounding out the top eight seeds in the boys’ 16s competition are No. 2 Jacob Bickersteth (West Bloomfield, Mich.), No. 3 Thomas Paulsell (Seattle), Carter Crookston (League City, Texas), No. 5 Luke Casper (Santa Cruz, Calif.), No. 6 Kabir Rajpal (Woodbury, N.Y.), No. 7 Ben Shelton (Gainesville, Fla.), and No. 8 Dillon Blake (Miami).

It is going to be a tall task for girls’ 16s top seed Leyden Games (Irvine, Calif.) to improve upon her last appearance at the USTA National Campus. Making the trip across the country to compete in the USTA May National Level 2 tournament, Games cruised to the trophy in singles play, dropping just one set in six matches; she also teamed up with her doubles partner to reach the final of that draw, coming up short against the top seeds. Other 2017 highlights for Games included a fourth-place showing in the 16s division doubles draw at the USTA National Clay Court Championships and a semifinal appearance in doubles at the Orange Bowl earlier in December. At last year’s Winter Championships, she advanced to the round of 16, where she pushed top-seeded Gianna Pielet to the brink before losing 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(4).

Other players checking in amongst the top eight in the girls’ 16s are No. 2 Ava Catanzarite (Pittsburgh), No. 3 Sonia Maheshwari (Morrisville, N.C.), No. 4 Jennifer Riester (Lynnfield, Mass.), No. 5 Iris Gallo (Longmeadow, Mass.), No. 6 Mary Grace Armistead (Hilton Head Island, S.C.), No. 7 Bridget Stammel (Dallas), and No. 8 Nadejda Maslova (Brooklyn, N.Y.).

Leighton Allen (Austin, Texas) comes in as the boys’ 18s No. 1 seed. Most of his success on the year has been in doubles, as Allen captured a pair of National Level 2 trophies plus the title at the Evert American ITF in November. However, he was also a finalist at that ITF event and followed that up by moving through to the semifinals of the USTA National Indoor Championships. Allen got to the singles round of 16 in the 2017 edition of the Winter Championships, where he lost to eventual champion Christian Alshon, along with earning a Bronze Ball in doubles.

The top eight competitors in the boys’ 18s also include No. 2 Wesley Barnett (Little Rock, Ark.), No. 3 Marcus McDaniel (Vacaville, Calif.), No. 4 and reigning USTA Boys’ 16s National Clay Court Championships winner Logan Zapp (Fleming Island, Fla.), No. 5 Matthew Segura (Apopka, Fla.), 2017 Boys’ 16s champion in last year’s Winter Championships No. 6 Keshav Chopra (Marietta, Ga.), Orlando native No. 7 Anuj Watane, and No. 8 Michael Sun (Livingston, N.J.).

Aneesa Lee, hailing from the California city of San Marino, is the top-seeded player in the girls’ 18s. She began her 2018 campaign in fine fashion, taking home the singles title at the Fourth Annual Henry Talbert Level 1 Championships. She was also the 16s division champion at the USTA Easter Bowl Championships in this spring. In her most recent action, Lee played her way to the finals of the USTA National Indoor Championships as the eighth seed, defeating three other seeds along the way. Lee took part in the 16s competition at last year’s Winter Championships, suffering an upset in the opening round in singles as the fourth seed; additionally, Lee was part of the tandem that finished second in last year’s doubles draw, earning her a Silver Ball.  

No. 2 Zoe Howard (Chevy Chase, Md.), a competitor very familiar with the courts of the National Campus in No. 3 Alana Wolfberg (Orlando), No. 4 Connie Ma (Dublin, Calif.), No. 5 Karina Miller (Ann Arbor, Mich.), No. 6 Abigail Desiatnikov (Las Vegas), No. 7 Page Freeman (Ashland, Mass.), and No. 8 Carly Briggs (Calhoun, Ga.).

For more information on the 2018 USTA National Winter Championships, click here.