The top seeds in the boys 18s are still alive in the main draw, but Jacob Brumm, the second seed in 16s was upset by unseeded Brian Cernoch, North Bethesda, Md., 7-5, 6-4, in the opening round. Seven 18s seeds lost on the first day of singles and eight 16s seeds were also gone. Last year, Collin Altamirano, Sacramento, Calif., became the first unseeded player ever to win the 18s division in the previous 71 years of the tournament in Kalamazoo, He’s back this year as the fifth seed, going for back-to-back titles. “I’m pretty happy with fifth seed, especially after last year,” Altamirano said. “I’ll take it. I’m fine with it. We’re all doing the same thing, we all know each other. We’re all going to be seeded, it’s just week by week, who knows.” Jared Donaldson wasn’t sure he would be the top seed in 18s with the level of players in the tournament. “If you look at ATP rankings, yeah, I think I deserved the top seed,” said Donaldson, whose ATP ranking is 309. “But a lot of guys have done a lot of good things this year, especially in the American Juniors. Noah (Rubin, the third seed) won Junior Wimbledon, Stefan (Kozlov the fourth seed) has been to the finals of Wimbledon Juniors and Australian Juniors. So it depends on what you look at.” Of the top eight seeds in 18s, seven of them are in the draw via wild cards.

Source: USTA Nationals Staff