Team JTCC seeks to win the US a Junior World Team title for a third straight year
The USTA announced yesterday that JTCC players Raveena Kingsley, Usue Arconada, and Andrew Fenty are among the top young Americans selected to represent the United States in Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup by BNP Paribas (16-and-under) and the boys’ and girls’ World Junior Tennis competition (14-and-under) North/Central American and Caribbean Final May 8-10 in Montreal, Canada.
This round of each premier world team competition serves as regional qualifying for the World Finals. The Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup Finals will be held September 23-28 in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The World Junior Tennis Finals will be played August 4-9 in Prostejov, Czech Republic.
Junior Davis Cup
William Blumberg (16, Greenwich, Conn.)
John McNally (15, Cincinnati)
Nathan Ponwith (16, Scottsdale, Ariz.)
Coach: Erik Kortland
Junior Fed Cup
Usue Arconada (15, College Park, Md.)
Sofia Kenin (15, Pembroke Pines, Fla.)
Raveena Kingsley (15, Parkton, Md.) Coach: Kathy Rinaldi
World Junior Tennis – Boys
Andrew Fenty (14, Washington, D.C.)
Keenan Mayo (14, Roseville, Calif.)
Steven Sun (13, Glen Cove, N.Y.) Coach: Jay Devashetty
World Junior Tennis – Girls
Elysia Bolton (14, Lake Forest, Ill.)
Rachel Lim (14, Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.)
Claire Liu (13, Thousand Oaks, Calif.) Coach: Jamea Jackson
All three Junior Fed Cup team members are in the Top 70 of the world junior rankings for players ages 18 and under (Kenin, No. 29; Arconada, No. 35; and Kingsley, No. 62). Liu, meanwhile, returns to World Junior Tennis, where she helped the U.S. win its sixth WJT girls’ title last year.
On the boys’ side, Ponwith took JTCC’s Francis Tiafoe to three sets in the Easter Bowl Boys’ 18s title match earlier this month. Blumberg was a quarterfinalist there, while McNally swept the 16s singles titles at the Easter Bowl and International Spring Championships.
Overall, the U.S. has won six World Junior Tennis girl’s titles (1992, 2007-10, 2013), four World Junior Tennis boys’ titles (2002-03, 2008, 2012), two Junior Davis Cup titles (1999, 2008) and two Junior Fed cup titles (2008, 2012).
Former U.S. junior international team members include Jim Courier, Andy Roddick, James Blake, Lindsay Davenport and Sloane Stephens. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have also represented their countries in junior international team competition.
