Tournament Coverage
Stammel Nets First Singles Gold Ball with Girls 18s Clay Title
by Sonny Dearth, 22 July 2022
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Highland Park could be known as Texas' high school of champions, thanks to 2020 World Series winner Clayton Kershaw, reigning Super Bowl champion quarterback Matthew Stafford and world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler.
Bridget Stammel used to live across the street from Scheffler, and it's time for her name to go on that select list.
Singles Champion Bridget Stammel
© Contributed Photo
About a month beyond her high school graduation, she won the USTA Girls 18 National Clay Court Championships in the Charleston, South Carolina area, to collect her first singles gold ball. It will make a nice addition to the one she gained in doubles at the 18s Winter Nationals in 2019.
Scheffler's "parents were always super-nice and would always ask me about tennis," she said. "I lived across the street from him for, like, four years."
Stammel, 18, seeded 15th and committed to Vanderbilt in the fall, swept all seven of her matches in straight sets, culminating in a 6-4, 6-2 triumph against co-17th seed Shannon Lam of East Brunswick, N.J., a 14-year-old rising ninth-grader.
"I definitely felt like I was playing really well this week," Stammel said. "I didn't play doubles, so I felt really fresh for every match. I felt like all my shots were working. I love my drop shot on clay. I was staying pretty positive, so that definitely helped me."
