Learner Tien, Eleana Yu win 18s nationals, spots in US Open main draw

Juniors Learner Tien and Elean­­­­a Yu punched their tickets into the US Open main draw after winning the USTA Boys’ and Girls’ 18s National Championships, respectively. Doubles pairs Ethan Quinn and Nicholas Godsick and Reese Brantmeier and Clervie Ngounoue will also compete in their respective divisions at the US Open, following victories at the prestigious junior tournaments.

On Sunday, Ohio’s 17-year-old, fourth-seeded Yu defeated Washington’s No. 17 seed Valerie Glozman, 6-3, 7-5 in sunny San Diego to take the title. But rain caused the boys' final in Kalamazoo, Michigan to be delayed until Monday. Irvine's Tien, 16, took two tiebreaks and to claim victory over Fresno's 18-year-old Ethan Quinn in a clash of Californians. Final score: 7-6(7), 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-3.

The National Championships took place at five locations across the country, featuring singles and doubles competition across the 18s, 16s, 14s and 12s age groups. 

In addition to the US Open main draw wild cards awarded to the 18s singles and doubles champions, the singles finalists in the boys’ and girls’ 18s divisions received wild card entries into the US Open Qualifying Tournament, set to begin on Tuesday, Aug. 23, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, Queens.

Meanwhile, the boys’ and girls’ 16s singles champions earned wild card entries into the US Open Junior Championships.

Tien, who is currently ranked the No. 40 junior in the world as of the latest ITF rankings, won the singles title at the prestigious ITF International Spring Championships in San Diego earlier this year. He also reached the quarterfinals at the Wimbledon Junior Championships last month.

"Having the confidence of coming back in that first set tiebreaker really helped me in that second set tiebreaker," Tien said. "Even though I was down a mini-break, I had come back from a similar deficit in the first set, so it didn't really affect me, mentally at least."

Though Glozman trailed throughout the match, she broke her opponent’s serve with a potentially outcome-altering point in the second set: Yu claimed the ball went wide but – without a video review available – was unable to challenge the call, providing Glozman with a comfortable 4-2 advantage. 

Still, Yu wouldn’t have it. In mere minutes, she rocketed to 5-4. Glozman saved championship point after championship point by attacking from inside the baseline. Glozman evened the score at 5-5, but Yu finally sealed the deal with her fifth championship point.

Following the US Open Qualifying Tournament on Aug. 23, the US Open main draw begins Aug. 29.