Top Juniors Honored At Annual USTA Eastern Junior Awards Gala
Each year at the U.S. Open, while the top professional players in the world are playing on the courts of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, junior players from the Eastern Section are honored for their achievements during the past year.
The annual USTA Eastern Junior Awards Gala is one of the highlights of the year’s local calendar, and holding the ceremony at the U.S. Open is the perfect way to celebrate these players.
“Hosting the annual Gala against the backdrop of the U.S. Open is deeply meaningful,” said Julie Beal, USTA Eastern’s Managing Director of Strategy & Competition. “It provides an aspirational setting to honor our junior athletes, allowing them to celebrate their accomplishments while simultaneously observing the sport’s highest level of professional competition.”
The full list of honorees is below:
Top Point Earners Honorees
Boys 12s
- Yann Carl Barthold
- Doruk Comakci
- Shuo Li
Girls 12s
- Meela Gupta
- Brooke Sangster
- Mila Kostel
Boys 14s
- Sebastian Cheaney
- Yifan Nie
- Koji Jiang
Girls 14s
- Daniella Yogumyan
- Gabrielle Alexa Villegas
- Mary Podkhyneychenkova
Boys 16s
- Brandon Jeon
- Jacques Chen
- Xavier Krasner
Girls 16s
- Violetta Li
- Grace Hong
- Ella Lin
- Haruka Nishimura
- Leala Kramer
Boys 18s
- Rocco Roti
- Anuj Mathur
- Charles Martin
Girls 18s
- Olivia Dartawan
- Masha Semenova
- Anvita Shankar
2025 Sportsmanship Honorees
Jeff Rothstein Girls’ 10 Sportsmanship Award: Fiona Tregerman
Jeff Rothstein Boys’ 10 Sportsmanship Award: James Skaferowsky
Richard D. Lynch II Girls 12’ Sportsmanship Award: Michaela Lin
Richard D. Lynch II Boys’ 12 Sportsmanship Award: Hugo Qiu
Edith Martin Girls’ 14 Sportsmanship Award: Madeleine Gett
Hawley Van Wyck, Jr. Boys’ 14 Sportsmanship Award: Weiren Zeng
Lawrence A. Miller Girls’ 16 Sportsmanship Award: Stephanie Costello
Lawrence A. Miller Boys’ 16 Sportsmanship Award: Rajveer Shetty
Edith Martin Girls’ 18 Sportsmanship Award: Masha Semenova
Lt. Frederick M. Scribner, Jr. Boys’ 18 Sportsmanship Award: Max Gofton
Henry Benisch Scholarship Award: Luke Lastique & Bea Degoma
Spirit of Sport Honorees
Michael Antonius: Youngest-ever American men’s ITF champion, 2026 Roland Garros boys’ singles finalist and Wimbledon boys’ doubles finalist
Jack Kennedy: 2025 U.S. Open boys’ doubles champion, 2026 Roland Garros boys’ doubles semifinalist and boys’ singles quarterfinalist
The play of these athletes, and the way they handled themselves both on and off the court, make them the ideal representatives of junior tennis in the USTA Eastern Section.
“This group truly shows the best of what our Section offers,” Beal added. “They’re a great mix of talent and character, including our top point earners who excelled at the L3 and L4 tournament circuit earlier this year, as well as the sportsmanship winners whom both their peers and officials singled out for being great on and off the court. We’re also really proud of our Spirit of the Sport winners, who are our own Eastern juniors making waves by competing in the U.S. Open Qualifiers and Main Draw.”
