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2018 USTA Boys' 12s National Clay Court Championships

Action Gets Underway

July 16, 2018
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The opening day of the 2018 USTA Boys’ 12s National Clay Court Championships wrapped up late in the afternoon, as the first round of singles and doubles was completed Monday. The singles seeds mostly held firm, with all of the top 16 prevailing and just six seeds falling overall. For the doubles draw, the seeded duos went a perfect 16-for-16, which included only three tandems being pushed to a decisive match tiebreak.

Top four seeds Rudy Quan (Sacramento, Calif.), Andrew Salu (Sarasota, Fla.), Alexander Frusina (Conroe, Texas), and Alexander Razeghi (Humble, Texas) were dominant on the day, dropping a combined eight games. Salu posted a 6-0, 6-0 victory to kick off his week, as did No. 9 seed Thomas Faurel (Alpharetta, Ga.), the only returning player from last year’s event who managed to advance to the round of 16.

The Seattle suburb of Kirkland was heavily involved in Monday’s upsets. The highest-seeded player to stumble, 18th-seed Alex Feies, calls Kirkland home. As does No. 19 seed Vincent Yang, who was also taken down in the first round, and Soham Purohit, who ousted 20th-seeded Joseph Hobbs (Virginia Beach, Va.) 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-2. Feies came up just short in his matchup versus Jimin Jung (Cary, N.C.), losing 6-2, 4-6, 6-3; Yang was defeated by Zhengqing Ji (La Jolla, Calif.) 6-0, 7-5.

Other singles upsets included Augustin Miramontes (Montgomery, Ala.) outlasting No. 28 Hughes Peus (Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.) 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(5), William Secord (Lake Forest, Ill.) besting No. 31 Noah McDonald (Charlotte, N.C.) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, and Arnesh Singh (Plano, Texas) coming out on top versus No. 32 Ivan Perisic (Scottsdale, Ariz.) 7-5, 1-6, 6-4.

In doubles action, the fifth-seeded team of Abhinav and Prathinav Chunduru (Plano, Texas) split sets with McDonald and Charlie Robin (Huntsville, Ala.) before prevailing 6-2, 3-6, 10-6. Although Purohit and Yang were on the opposite ends of singles upsets, the sixth-seeded pair was able to rally in their lengthy contest with Hayes Gilbert (Wilmington, N.C.) and Jung for a 4-6, 6-4, 14-12 triumph. Finally, No. 16 Roman Sancilio (Henrico, Va.) and Benjamin Wang (Potomac, Md.) survived day one with a 6-3, 5-7, 10-6 result over Ethan Portnoy (Okemos, Mich.) and Secord.

Action continues Tuesday morning beginning at 8:00 a.m. Singles action will start the day off with doubles to follow in the afternoon.

Among the previous singles champions are current pros Donald Young (2001), Jack Sock (2005), and Tommy Paul (2009). Former doubles champions include collegiate head coaches at BYU (Brad Pearce – 1978), Ohio State (Ty Tucker – 1982), and UCF (Bryan Koniecko – 1999) along with MaliVai Washington (1981), Denis Kudla (2004), Jack Sock (2004 and 2005), and Tommy Paul (2009).

For more information on the 2018 USTA Boys’ 12s National Clay Court Championships, click here. Additionally, the singles final will be broadcast live on Sunday, July 22 at 9:00 a.m. on the USTA’s YouTube page.