Player Nominations for ITF Junior Fed Cup and Junior Davis Cup Released; College Players Announced for Audi Napa Classic

The ITF posted the names of the players who will be participating in their Junior Fed Cup and Junior Davis Cup 16-and-under competitions September 25-30 in Barcelona, Spain. This is the first year the tournament has been held in Spain, after four years in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Last year the US boys did not qualify from the North American region and the US girls did not go due to security concerns, ceding their spot to Canada, who finished second.

This year the United States will be represented in the Junior Fed Cup by Taylor Townsend, Gabby Andrews and Louisa Chirico, with Kathy Rinaldi of the USTA serving as the coach. The US Junior Davis Cup team will consist of Noah Rubin, Stefan Kozlov (who at 14 is the youngest of the 48 boys competing) and Jared Donaldson. Nicolas Todero is the USTA coach for the boys.

Andrews and Townsend were two of the three girls who won the ITF World Junior Tennis team competition in the Czech Republic back in 2010, with Brooke Austin the third player on the team. Rubin and Kozlov were on the WJT team that finished in eighth place that year, with Jordan Belga the third player.

The US girls are obviously one of the favorites, but there are several strong teams that will challenge them. Germany has Antonia Lottner, the No. 3 ranked player in the junior rankings, the host team features European 16s champion Sara Sorribes, who won two $10,000 ITF Women's events last month on clay, and Russia, always tough, has ITF junior No. 7 Elizaveta Kulichkova. Australia is the defending champion, but Ashleigh Barty, although eligible, is not returning and 14-year-old Naiktha Bains will lead the team.

Great Britain's boys won the title last year, but they did not qualify this year. Italy will be one of the favorites, with world No. 3 Gianluigi Quinzi returning after reaching the finals against Great Britain last year as a 15-year-old. Filippo Baldi and Domenico Mirko Cutuli complete the Italian team.

Korea is also fielding a strong team, with Hyeon Chung, Kukeon Kang and Seongchan Hong all in good form. Hong, although only ranked 171, won three straight ITF Grade 5 tournaments last month in China.

The seedings and draws will not be released until next week.

The complete list of players on each of the 32 teams can be found at this page on the ITF Junior website, under Related Links.

The Audi Napa Classic begins Friday, and the USTA today released the names of the college players who will be participating. The names of the eight juniors the USTA selected to compete in the event can be found here.

University of California, Berkeley
Mads Engsted (FR, Aarhus, Denmark)
Chris Konigsfeldt (SR, Rungsted Kyst, Denmark)
Ben McLachlan (JR, Queenstown, New Zealand)
Riki McLachlan (SR, Queenstown, New Zealand)

University of Georgia
Garrett Brasseaux (JR, Mandeville, La.)
Eric Diaz (SO, Athens, Ga.)
Nathan Pasha (SO, Atlanta, Ga.)
Ben Wagland (FR, New South Wales, Australia)

Harvard University
Shaun Chaudhuri (SO, Pleasanton, Calif.)
Casey MacMaster (JR, Fort Collins, Colo.)
Denis Nguyen (SO, Anaheim, Calif.)
Alex Steinroeder (SO, Concord, Mass.)

University of Illinois
Farris Gosea (SO, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom)
Stephen Hoh (SR, Eaglemont, Victoria, Australia)
Tim Kopinski (SO, Palos Hills, Ill.)
Brian Page (FR, Wheaton, Ill.)

Stanford University
Daniel Ho (JR, Rosemead, Calif.)
Matt Kandath (SR, Gansevoort, N.Y.)
John Morrissey (SO, Dublin, Ireland)
Robert Stineman (SO, Winnetka, Ill.)

University of Texas
Lloyd Glasspool (SO, Birmingham, England)
Soren Hess-Olesen (SO, Aarhus, Denmark)
Sudanwa Sitaram (JR, Coimbatore, India)
Daniel Whitehead (SR, Sugar Land, Texas)