The USTA National Campus welcomes back the prestigious USTA National Winter Championships, part of the USTA adidas Junior Championship Series, to close out the 2019 calendar year. Play will begin on Saturday, Dec. 28 and run through Friday, Jan. 3. The event is set to feature the nation’s most talented junior players in the boys’ and girls’ 16s & 18s age divisions.

All singles draws are composed of 128 players with a feed-in consolation draw through the quarterfinals. Main draw matches will be the best of three tiebreak sets; consolation matches will play a 10-point match tiebreak in lieu of a full third set. For doubles, the draws are made up of 64 pairs and will be single elimination with a playoff match for third place. All matches will use a 10-point match tiebreak in lieu of a full third set until the semifinal round.

The past 12 months have seen Louis Cloud (San Antonio) shoot up the rankings, as he has gone from being an unseeded competitor in 2018 to the top seed in the boys’ 16s for 2019. His stellar year was perhaps kicked off by the USTA Gold Ball he earned in doubles at last year’s USTA National Winter Championships despite being part of the 14th-seeded duo. Cloud captured the singles titles at National Level 2 tournaments in February and October along with reaching the final of another Level 2 in May. He also pieced together a solid week at the ITF event in Corpus Christi, reaching the semifinals in both singles and doubles.

Boys’ 16s No. 2 seed Daniel Schmelka (Hinsdale, Ill.) will be looking to bookend his 2019 with tournament titles after playing his way to the win at the USTA Midwest Level 1 Championships in January. His schedule was a bit lighter for the second half of the year, but he did manage to collect a total of nine match victories between the USTA National Clay Court and USTA National Hard Court Championships. Schmelka, who does own a win over this year’s top seed in the 18s, was seeded No. 17 at last year’s USTA National Winter Championships in the 16s division.

Seeded third overall in the boys’ 16s, Michael Zheng (Montville, N.J.) should come in feeling confident thanks to his title at the USTA National Indoor Championships in November, where he defeated both Schmelka and Walker Oberg (Weston, Mass.), who is seeded fourth for this year’s Championships. Oberg did get the best of Zheng en route to his title at a National Level 2 event in February. He will be looking to improve on his performance at the Championships from a year ago, where he lost in the opening round.

No player in the field has experienced more success on the courts of the National Campus than boys’ 18s top seed and University of North Carolina commit Logan Zapp (Fleming Island, Fla.). After claiming third and a USTA Bronze Ball at this event in 2018, he also was part of the winning team in the 18s at the USTA Florida Doubles Spring Challenge in May, took third at the USTA Florida “Bobby Curtis” Junior Sectional Championships, and earned a USTA Silver Ball at the USTA National Doubles Championships. Outside of Lake Nona, Zapp has been equally as impressive, highlighted by earning a Silver Ball in singles and Gold Ball in doubles at the USTA National Clay Court Championships.  

No. 2 seed and future Texas Longhorn Leighton Allen (Austin, Texas), who took down Zapp in that National Clay Court Championships singles final, comes in as a top contender once again. Last year he was the No. 1 seed, but faltered in the round of 32; he did capture a Bronze Ball in doubles. Allen’s strong 2019 includes sweeping the singles and doubles crowns at a National Level 2 tournament in May plus another doubles title at the USTA Southern California ITF in March.

Oklahoma commit Welsh Hotard (New Orleans) is seeded third this week. He has experienced a wealth of success on the ITF circuit this year, most recently scoring back-to-back titles at the Pan American Championships and the Atlanta ITF event in October. Fellow Louisiana native and LSU commit Benjamin Koch (Abbeville, La.) has earned the fourth seed on the strength of two National Level 2 singles titles over the course of the year.

A solid 2019 has helped Aubrey Nisbet (Wilmington, Del.) go from the girls’ 14s No. 2 seed last year to the girls’ 16s No. 1 seed for this year’s Championships. Her year was really elevated starting in April when she was crowned the singles and doubles winner at a Level 4 event, the start of three consecutive titles for Nisbet. The highlight of her year to this point was the USTA Gold Ball she won at the USTA National Clay Court Championships as the 13th seed.

Unseeded in 2018, Katie Codd (Carlsbad, Calif.) has vaulted all the way up to the second seed in the girls’ 16s draw. She is coming off a semifinal run at the USTA National Indoor Championships last month after taking home the title at a National Level 2 tournament in October. Codd was a quarterfinalist at the National Clay Court Championships along with reaching the round of 32 at the National Hard Court Championships.

Ria Bhakta (Saratoga, Calif.), last year’s dominant champion in the girls’ 14s division of the USTA National Winter Championships, has earned the No. 3 seed in the 16s division. After taking the Silver Ball in the 14s at the Easter Bowl, she was a semifinalist in the 16s at the International Spring Championships while finishing third at a National Level 2 event over the summer. Fourth seed Kida Ferrari (Fairhope, Ala.), the champion at the Icy Hot USTA Southern Level 2 in the 18s, was a bit of a surprise quarterfinalist at both the National Clay Court and National Hard Court Championships.

Girls’ 18s No. 1 seed and future South Carolina Gamecock Sarah Hamner (Fort Collins, Colo.) won a total of nine consolation matches at last year’s Championships en route to the consolation singles title. She was victorious at back-to-back events over the summer – a National Level 2 in June and the 2019 Florida Open in July – before quarterfinal efforts at the National Clay Court Championships and 2019 Eddie Herr International.

Neha Velaga (Colmar, Pa.) comes in as the second seed after being the 10th overall seed in 2018. Her 2019 was kick started by a tournament victory at the Smith Stearns Junior Championships, while she also claimed the runner-up trophy at a National Level 2 event this summer. The future Princeton Tiger most recently competed at the National Indoor Championships, where she was the winner of the Bronze Ball in singles.

A commit to the University of Michigan, junior Julia Fliegner (Clarkston, Mich.) played her way to the round of 16 a year ago and is now seeded No. 3 for the 2019 edition of the Championships. She had a tremendous week at the National Indoor Championships, leaving with a Silver Ball in singles and Bronze Ball in doubles; Fliegner was also the girls’ 18s singles and doubles champion at the USTA Midwest Level 1 Closed Championships in June. No. 4 seed Gianna Pielet (El Paso, Texas) was the consolation finalist to Hamner in 2018. Her 2019 has featured several ITF titles, including singles crowns in both Plantation and Delray Beach along with winning the doubles in Coral Gables.

All doubles draw will be posted on the evening of the 27. First matches are scheduled to take to the courts at 9 a.m. on Saturday. For more information on the 2019 USTA National Winter Championships, click here.