Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup Underway
Unlike the Fed Cup and Davis Cup, the junior versions are held in one place--Barcelona--and the same week every year--the last week of September. These competitions are for age 16-and-under players; the World Junior Tennis Championships held in August in the Czech Republic are the 14-and-unders version.
The U.S. teams came in very highly regarded, which is somewhat surprising given the surface is clay, with both girls and boys teams seeded second. France, the defending champions in Jr. Davis Cup, is the top seed; for the girls, Russia, with U.S. Open Junior Girls Champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova leading them, is no. 1.
The U.S. boys' team, consisting of Jarmere Jenkins, Austin Krajicek and Bradley Klahn, has already lost to both Japan and Brazil (competition started Tuesday), so they have no chance of advancing to the semifinals.
The girls--Madison Brengle, Chelsey Gullickson and Kristy Frilling, are 2-0 however, having beaten Japan and Spain. On Thursday, they face no. 7 seed Belarus, also 2-0, with the winner advancing to the semifinals. Belarus features Ksenia Milevskaya, the world's third ranked junior girl, who didn't lose a game to Japan's no. 1 player today. Milevskaya, winner of the Grade 1 in Canada before the U.S. Open juniors and the Grade 1 in Kentucky afterward, has beaten Gullickson, the U.S. no. 1, both times they've played. The U.S. team is deeper, which is why the seedings make Belarus the underdog.
Eleanor Preston is covering the competitions for the ITF. Her story on Wednesday's competition is available at the ifttennis.com/juniors website.
2 comments:
USTA strikes out again with boys at Jr. Davis. Cup.
Came across this list on mentennisforum.com entitled: upcoming American Players. Looks good to me. Interesting that
only one of the USTA boys team, Jarmere Jenkins, is listed as an upcoming junior. How does the USTA pick these kids anyway?
Curious, what is you take on the list?
: Upcoming American Players
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In order of age, from oldest to youngest:
Wayne Odesnik: 20-years-old; ranked #192; in the past 10 months he's won one challenger and four futures events; comfortable on clay
Phillip Simmonds: 20-years-old; ranked #241; has won a challenger and a futures event this year
Brendan Evans: 20-years-old; ranked #332; has won a futures event this year
Scott Oudsema: 20-years-old; ranked #359; won a first round match in L.A. last week
Nikita Kryvonos: 19-years-old; ranked #513; has won a futures event this year
Scoville Jenkins: 19-years-old; ranked #255; has won a futures event this year; advanced to the second round of the U.S. Open last year, losing to Nadal.
Alex Kuznetsov: 19-years-old; ranked #277; has won a challenger this year; had a good career in juniors, ranking as high as #9 in singles; lost to Gael Monfils in the Junior French Open finals in 2004
Ryan Sweeting: 19-years-old; ranked #663; qualified for Washington this week and advanced to the second round; won the Junior U.S. Open last year; was ranked as high as #2 in juniors
Timothy Neilly: 18-years-old; ranked #1009; has struggled thus far on the pro circuit, but had a terrific junior career, ranking as high as #8
Sam Querrey: 18-years-old: ranked #182; has won two challengers this year, as well as four ATP matches; easily considered the top American prospect at the moment; 6'6" with a big serve and a big forehand
Jesse Levine: 18-years-old; ranked #546
Tim Smyczek: 18-years-old; ranked #602; has won a futures event this year
Marcus Fugate: 18-years-old; ranked #731
Donald Young: 17-years-old; ranked #574; phenomenal junior career; lost in first round of U.S. Open last year; his stock has dropped somewhat after many bad performances on the ATP circuit, but he's still a promising prospect.
I haven't seen most of these guys play, so its hard for me to rank the prospects. However, Sam Querrey is definitely #1 at the moment. Based on potential, Young and Sweeting would probably follow Querrey.
Juniors to watch:
17-year-olds: Kellen Damico
16-years-olds: Michael McClune, Wil Spencer, Ryan Thacher, Brennan Boyajian
15-year-olds: Chase Buchanan, Rhyne Williams, J.T. Sundling, James (Bo) Seal, Jarmere Jenkins
14-year-olds: Alexander Domijan, Ryan Harrison, Denis Lin, Evan King, Harry Fowler
From the juniors listed above, Buchanan and Domijan are of particular interest to me. Buchanan has been fabulous in juniors up to this point, playing above his age much of the time. Domijan isn't quite as accomplished in terms of results, but he sounds like a kid with a lot of upside. Rhyne Williams won the Boys' 14s at the prestigious Orange Bowl last year.
This list is by no means definitive or exhaustive, but those are some kids to follow if you're interested.
It's an interesting, but hardly comprehensive list, excluding anyone who is in college, except for Sweeting. Matt Bruch and Greg Ouellette are two players not mentioned that immediately spring to mind in that 20 and under group. I'd like to add that the ages are based on an early August 2006 date.
I'm am fairly certain that a player not on this list will be Top 100 in the next three years. I just have no clue who that might be.
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