SW Juniors Post Strong Summer Results

USTA Southwest junior players picked up some valuable hardware this summer at events across the country.

Lyla Middleton (Rowe, NM) topped them all, with a clean sweep of the USTA National Girls' 14s singles and doubles titles in Rome, Georgia in August. Middleton, the six seed in singles, claimed her first-ever singles national gold ball, winning six matches, including four against the 2, 3, 4 and 12 seeds en route to the title. She also teamed with Boca Raton, Florida junior Welles Newman to win the doubles event. The pair was the third seed at the event, and won six matches, including three against seeded pairs.

Middleton also captured the level 1 USTA Girls’ 14s Doubles Championships in late August in Orlando, her third gold ball in just a short period of time.

Scottsdale's Vessa Turley continued a torrid last year of results as well, teaming with Leena Friedman of Brooklyn, NY to win the USTA Billie Jean King Girls' National 16s title in San Diego in August. Turley and Friedman, the top seeds in the event, won six matches on the week without so much as dropping a set.

Scottsdale's Georgia Cranford reached the semifinals of the USTA Billie Jean King Girls' 18s National Championship doubles event with partner Brooke Lynne Schafer (Cumming, Ga.).

The Cranford-Schafer tandem was the 9 seed going into the event and won four main draw matches.

The top Southwest boys' result was put in by Fountain Hills, Arizona's Andrej Markovic. Markovic pushed all the way to the semifinals in doubles at the USTA National Boys' 14s event in Mobile, Alabama in August. Markovic shared the court all week with University City, Maryland junior Nico Pedraza for doubles. The two won four matches on their way to the Final 4, including three victories in three sets.

Our girls' 16s/18s Battle of the Section teams also posted strong results this summer.
 

Team members were:

16u squad-Lily Zawaneh, Hi’Ilani Williams, Anjani Vickneswaran, Alanna Ingalsbe

18u squad-Georgia Cranford, Anna Neyestani, Emmi Kolyzsko, Sydney Schnell.