Ngounoue, Tien win USTA 18s national singles titles, earn 2023 US Open wild cards
Top American juniors Clervie Ngounoue and Learner Tien won the USTA Boys’ and Girls’ 18s National Championships, respectively, last week. Along with the national titles, the triumphs for the two 17-year-olds also earned them wild cards into the main draw of the 2023 US Open.
The nation’s top junior tennis players competed in the National Championships, held 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. Meanwhile, the boys’ and girls’ 16s singles champions earned wild-card entries into the US Open Junior Championships.
Ngounoue, from Washington, D.C., was the top seed at the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s event in San Diego. Fresh off winning the girls’ singles title at Wimbledon, Ngounoue stormed through the 18s singles draw, not dropping a set en route to the final.
There she faced hometown favorite Katherine Hui (18; San Diego), whom she dispatched, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Ngounoue, who now lives in Orlando, Fla., and trains at the USTA National Campus, will be heading to the US Open for the second consecutive year after winning the 18s doubles title in San Diego last year to earn her and partner Reese Brantmeier a main-draw doubles wild card. The No. 2-ranked junior in the world will be making her Grand Slam singles main draw debut.
Katherine Hui (left) and Clervie Ngounoue (middle right) pose with Billie Jean King.
Boys' 18s singles champion Learner Tien (left) and finalist Trevor Svajda.
Boys' 16s singles champion Cooper Woestendick.
GIrls' 14s singles champion Lyla Middleton (left) and finalist Reagan Levine.
Boys' 14s singles champion Tanishk Konduri.
Boys' 12s singles champion Tristan Ascenzo.
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Tien, from Irvine, Calif., was also the top seed in the boys’ event in Kalamazoo, Mich. He claimed his second consecutive boys’ 18s singles crown by defeating No. 10 seed Trevor Svajda (17; San Diego), 6-0, 6-4, 6-4.
Svajda is the younger brother of Zachary Svajda, who won the boys’ 18s singles title in 2019 and 2021 (no event was held in 2020). Prior to Svajda and Tien, the last player to win back-to-back 18s singles titles was Jack Sock in 2010-11.
Tien fell in the opening round of the 2022 US Open last summer, making his Grand Slam debut at age 16. He then went on to play a semester of college tennis at USC before announcing his intentions to turn pro earlier this summer. He won his first professional singles title at a USTA Pro Circuit M15 event in his hometown of Irvine in June.
Singles champion Christina Lyutova at the USTA Girls' 16s National Championships.
Girls' 18s finalist Hui, who is committed to play college tennis at Stanford next year, and boys' 18s runner-up Svajda, a rising high school senior, will both earn a US Open Qualifying wild card.
In other 18s action, Alexander Frusina (17; Conroe, Texas) and Adhithya Ganesan (17; Clarksburg, Md.) won the boys doubles title, while the unseeded duo of Kate Fakih (16; Pasadena, Calif.) and Olivia Center (17; South Pasadena, Calif.) won the girls’ doubles crown. Both pairs will receive US Open doubles wild cards.
Cooper Woestendick (16; Olathe, Kan.) and Christina Lyutova (13; Redmond, Wash.) won the respective singles titles at the USTA Boys’ and Girls’ 16s National Championships and will receive wild cards into the main draw of the US Open Junior Championships.
Complete results from each final at the USTA National Championships can be found below. The complete draws are available here: Boys’ 18s and 16s; Girls’ 18s and 16s; Boys’ 14s and 12s; Girls’ 14s; Girls’ 12s.
USTA National Championships – Boys’ 18s
Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Mich., August 4-13
Singles: (1) Learner Tien (Irvine, Calif.) d. (10) Trevor Svajda (San Diego), 6-0, 6-4, 6-4
Doubles: (7) Alexander Frusina (Conroe, Texas) / Adhithya Ganesan (Clarksburg, Md.) d. (3) Nisesh Basavareddy (Carmel, Ind.) / Kyle Kang (Fullerton, Calif.), 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(6)
USTA National Championships – Girls’ 18s
Barnes Tennis Center, San Diego, August 5-13
Singles: (1) Clervie Ngounoue (Washington, D.C.) d. (17) Katherine Hui (San Diego), 1-6, 6-4, XX
Doubles: Kate Fakih (Pasadena, Calif.) / Olivia Center (South Pasadena, Calif.) d. (4) Alanis Hamilton (Bentonville, Ark.) / Kayla Chung (Philadelphia), 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-4
USTA National Championships – Boys’ 16s
Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Mich., August 4-13
Singles: (2) Cooper Woestendick (Olathe, Kan.) d. (27) Lachlan Gaskell (Delray Beach, Fla.), 6-4, 6-2
Doubles: (14) Maxim Kalinin (Mamaroneck, N.Y.) / Nicholas Patrick (Coal Valley, Ill.) d. (1) Maxwell Exsted (Savage, Minn.) / Woestendick, 7-6(7), 6-1
USTA National Championships – Girls’ 16s
Barnes Tennis Center, San Diego, August 5-13
Singles: (1) Christina Lyutova (Redmond, Wash.) d. (7) Anita Tu (Melbourne, Fla.), 2-6, 7-5, 6-1
Doubles: (1) Leena Friedman (Brooklyn, N.Y.) / Vessa Turley (scottsdale, Ariz.) d. (8) Riley Trinkle (Charlestown, Ind.) / Kaede Usui (Franklin, Wis.), 6-3, 6-3
USTA National Championships – Boys’ 14s
Mobile Tennis Center, Mobile, Ala., August 4-13
Singles: (3) Tanishk Konduri (Santa Clara, Calif.) d. (4) Erik Schinnerer (Lewisburg, Pa.), 6-3, 6-0
Doubles: (4) Konduri / Colin McPeek (Carmel, Ind.) d. (1) Joseph Nau (Brentwood, Calif.) / Navneet Raghuram (Fenton, Mo.), 6-4, 6-1
USTA National Championships – Girls’ 14s
Rome Tennis Center, Rome, Ga., August 5-12
Singles: (6) Lyla Middleton (Jackson, Miss.) d. (3) Reagan Levine (Laguna Beach, Calif.), 6-2, 6-2
Doubles: (3) Middleton / Welles Newman (Boca Raton, Fla.) d. (6) Janica Bo (Boxborough, Mass.) / Raina Kim (Santa Monica, Calif.), 6-2, 6-2
USTA National Championships – Boys’ 12s
Mobile Tennis Center, Mobile, Ala., August 4-13
Singles: (2) Tristan Ascenzo (Dallas) d. (3) Joshua Dolinsky (Brooklyn,N.Y.), 6-4, 3-6, 6-2
Doubles: (6) Smyan Vijay (Apex, N.C.) / Siddhant Dua (Charlotte, N.C.) d. (1) Ascenzo / Sebastian Zavala (Allen, Texas), 6-2, 6-4
USTA National Championships – Girls’ 12s
Lifetime Tennis, Peachtree Corners, Ga., August 6-12
Singles: (1) Allison Wang (San Jose, Calif.) d. (5) Daniela Davletshina (Lake Worth, Fla.), 6-4, 6-2
Doubles: (15) Davletshina / Nikol Davletshina (Lake Worth, Fla.) d. (8) Emily Bennington (Apex, N.C.) / Sophia Khomoutov (Chicago), 6-4, 6-3
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