USTA Eastern Aces the 2019 US Open

They smashed it. USTA Eastern players netted some fantastic results at the 2019 US Open. Here are some of the highlights. 

KRISTIE AHN The former Eastern junior, who was born in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. and grew up in New Jersey, received a wild card into the tournament (for her success at the challenger level) and blasted her way through the women’s singles draw, defeating two Grand Slam champions—Jelena Ostapenko, who won the 2017 French Open, and Svetlana Kuznetsova, who captured both the 2004 US Open and the 2009 French Open—en route to a career-best Round of 16 berth at a major. This was just Ahn’s second time playing in the main draw of the US Open; over ten years ago, in 2008, she made her way through qualies and faced former world No. 1 Dinara Safina in the first round. 

ELIOT SPIZZIRRI The Greenwich, Conn. native—with partner Tyler Zink of Lancaster, Pa.—defeated Andrew Paulson of the Czech Republic and Alexander Zgirovsky of Belarus, 7-6, 6-4, to capture the boys’ doubles championship. Spizzirri and Zink, who were unseeded, came through two matches with super tiebreaks and defeated the No. 5 seeded team on the way to claiming the title.

CANNON KINGSLEY Northport, N.Y’s Kingsley, now a freshman at Ohio State University, reached the semifinals of the boys’ junior draw before losing to compatriot Emilio Nava. Kingsley played a wild first set in the second round against the No. 5 seed, Brazil’s Thiago Augustin Tirante. Kingsley led by a break and served for the set at one point, but Tirante fought back and managed to take it to a tiebreak. Tirante raced out to a 6-1 lead in the tiebreak; Kingsley then reeled off the next seven points to win it. (Tirante eventually retired down 0-2 in the second.) It’s been another great Grand Slam result for Kingsley. At the Australian Open earlier this season, he made the quarterfinals in boys’ singles and reached the boys’ doubles final (with Nava as his partner).

ALEXA NOEL Noel (pictured), who hails from Summit, N.J., made the quarterfinals of girls’ doubles (with partner Diane Parry of France) and the third round of girls’ singles. The results cap off a good summer for the 17-year-old—she reached the girls’ singles final at Wimbledon in July.

Other Eastern athletes who competed at the 2019 US Open: Robin Anderson (Women’s Singles QR2) , Ronald Hohmann (Boys’ Singles R1), Elvina Kalieva (Girls’ Singles R2, Girls’ Doubles R2), Jamie Loeb (Women’s Singles QR1), Tara Malik (Girls’ Singles QR1), Christina McHale (Women’s Singles QR2, Women’s Doubles R2, Mixed Doubles R1) Noah Rubin (Men’s Singles QR2, Men’s Doubles R1), Hibah Shaikh (Girls’ Singles QR2), Madison Sieg (Girls’ Singles QR1) and Valencia Xu (Girls' Singles QR1).