Julieta Pareja Leads USTA Girls’ Nationals Field; Florida Juniors Among Top Seeds

Julieta Pareja will lead a loaded field of nearly 400 of the nation’s top junior girls at the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 16s and 18s National Championships, where US Open wild cards will be on the line.

Pareja, 17, is the No. 1 seed in the Girls’ 18s and enters as one of the most accomplished players in the field. Ranked No. 288 in the WTA singles rankings, she won her first ITF World Tennis Tour title in 2024, reached the semifinals of a WTA 250 event in Colombia in 2025 and later advanced to the girls’ singles and doubles finals at Wimbledon.

The tournament, held at Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, has been staged for more than a century and has featured generations of future stars, including Chris Evert, Tracy Austin, Jennifer Capriati, Lindsay Davenport, Pam Shriver and Sofia Kenin.

Florida will also be well represented near the top of the draws. Bradenton’s Bella Payne is the No. 2 seed in the Girls’ 18s, while Welles Newman of Boca Raton is seeded No. 6.

In the Girls’ 16s, 13-year-old Nikol Davletshina of Boca Raton enters as the No. 2 seed after winning both the singles and doubles titles at the USTA National Clay Court Championships.

Above: Top seed Julieta Pareja. Photo credit: Lexie Wanninger / USTA Southern California

The Girls’ 18s field also includes Thea Frodin, Janae Preston, Kristina Penickova, Carlota Moreno and Jordyn Hazelitt among the top eight seeds. Easter Bowl champion Ellery Mendell and University of North Carolina sophomore Anna Frey are also entered.

The Girls’ 16s draw is led by No. 1 seed Shristi Selvan of Laurel, Md. Behind Davletshina, the top seeds include Natalie Frisbie, Olivia Lin, Sylvana Jalbert, Avita Beitler, Abigail Haile and reigning Orange Bowl 16s champion Priscilla Sirichantho.

“The USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ National Championships will bring together nearly 400 of the top junior players in the country and serve as a true pathway to college and professional tennis,” Tournament Director Lornie Kuhle said. “We’ve seen that journey with players like Coco Gauff, and more recently, Iva Jovic.”

Jovic provides a recent example of that pathway. She won the Girls’ 18s singles title in 2024 and has since climbed into the upper levels of the WTA rankings.

The stakes are significant. The Girls’ 18s singles champion will receive a wild card into the US Open women’s main draw, while the runner-up will earn a wild card into US Open qualifying. The 18s doubles champions will receive a wild card into the US Open women’s doubles main draw.

The Girls’ 16s champion will earn direct entry into the Junior US Open.

Both divisions feature 192-player singles draws and 96-team doubles draws, making the Billie Jean King Girls’ Nationals one of the deepest junior tournaments in the country.

With Pareja headlining the field and Payne, Newman and Davletshina among the top seeds, the event will feature a strong mix of established junior standouts and emerging players with a chance to take a major step toward the US Open.

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Source: USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 16s and 18s National Championships