The Bill Rompf Junior Tennis Foundation's first scholarship recipient, Taytum Jones, has been selected as the Male High Performance Junior Player of the Year by USTA Oklahoma. He will be honored and presented with this award along with the current Oklahoma Hall of Fame 2023 inductees, at the USTA Oklahoma's Awards Banquet on February 3rd at Gaillardia Country Club.
Taytum's Cinderella story began in December of 2022 when he was chosen as the first BRJTF scholarship player. At that time he was ranked 520th nationally, 20th in the Missouri Valley and 8th in the state of Oklahoma. After receiving the distinguished invite and scholarship to the USTA Training Camp in Florida, Taytum secured himself a wild card into the Boy's 14u Clay Court Nationals Tournament where he earned his way into the Boys 14u Hard Court National Tournament (both located in Alabama). Between both national tournaments, Taytum beat several seeded players and won eight matches. His goal of being nationally ranked inside the top 100 boys 14’s came to fruition as he completed the year as 99th in USTA, 4th in Missouri Valley, and 3rd in the state of Oklahoma.
After a 3 month halt due to injury at the end of 2023 and aging up into the Boy's 16's, Taytum played his first event post injury at an L5 USTA tournament in Overland Park, Kansas. Here he beat the third and fifth seeded players while coming up just short in a super tiebreaker in the finals. Taytum’s boys 16’s national ranking is 584th, 24th in the Missouri Valley and 11th in the state of Oklahoma. His world tennis number is now a 20.84. His UTR is a 9.26 in singles and a 9.06 in doubles. If his 2024 performance is anything like 2023, he is expected to quickly climb up in the rankings his first year in the 16‘s age division. As Taytum’s mother says, "This young man just doesn't stop! I am so proud to be his mom! And if it were not for you (BRJTF), your generosity and your heart for kiddos in this sport… Taytum wouldn't be where he is. It's been such a magical year!" Â
And we too are so proud to be helping Taytum reach his tennis dreams and will continue to do so in 2024.
