Zheng, Brantmeier Receive $100K Hurd Awards, Svajda and Lutkemeyer $40K as Finalists; Qualifying Complete, Johnson, Clarke Top Seeds at ITF J300 Tucson

photo credit: Universal Tennis Foundation

This year’s Hurd Awards were nearly a foregone conclusion after Reese Brantmeier of North Carolina and Michael Zheng of Columbia won the NCAA singles titles in November in Lake Nona. Both Americans, both seniors, both interested in pursuing careers in professional tennis, it would have been shocking if they had not received the $100,000 grants to assist them in that pursuit.

Recently the Universal Tennis Foundation and Paula Hurd added a grant for two finalists, with this year’s recipients of the $40,000 grant SMU junior Trevor Svajda, who is expected to join the pro circuit after this season, and UCLA senior Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer.

All four winners are quoted in this release from UTR; the Tennis Channel segment below features former Hurd recipient Chris Eubanks explaining how the grant eased his transition into pro tennis, with UTR’s Mark Leschly and Paula Hurd adding their comments on the accomplishments of all four winners. 

The main draw of the ITF J300 in Tucson begins Monday at the Tucson Racquet Club, although the seeded players will not take the court until Tuesday in the 48-player draws.

Qualifying concluded today with six boys and six girls earning their spots in the main draw, which means another match Monday. The girls qualifiers are Sylvana Jalbert, Ava Quincy Brewer, Armira Kockinis, Briley Rhoden, Anjani Vickneswaran and Sophie Suh, all of the United States. The boys qualifiers are Sebastian Godoy, Loic Massotte of Canada, Kristian Sharma, John Murphy, Keshav Muthuvel and Jack Dermenjyan.

The boys seeds:

1. Andrew Johnson

2. Gavin Goode

3. Tanishk Konduri

4. Xavier Massotte, CAN

5. Ryan Cozad

6. Vihaan Reddy

7. Safir Azam

8. Agassi Rusher

9. Marcel Latak

10. Roshan Santhosh

11. Zavier Augustin

12. Cooper Kose, AUS

13. Mauricio Schtulmann Gasca, MEX

14. Jerrid Gaines Jr.

15. William Kjellberg, SWE

16. Mason Taube

The girls seeds:

1. Melije Clarke

2. Hollie Smart, GBR

3. Olivia Traynor

4. Lani Chang

5. Sarah Ye

6. Carrie-Anne Hoo

7. Riyo Yoshida, JPN

8. Capucine Jauffret

9. Thara Gowda

10. Adla Lopez

11. Karlin Schock

12. Isabelle Deluccia

13. Hannah Ayrault

14. Anya Arora

15. Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann

16. Brooke Wallman