US Teams Open Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup Competition with Shutout Victories; LTA Names New Chief Executive

The ITF's Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup competitions for players 16-and-under began today in San Luis Potosi Mexico, with both US teams scoring 3-0 victories in their round robin groups.

The US boys team, which consists of Stefan Kozlov, Henrik Wiersholm and Tommy Paul is seeded fourth overall and first in their round robin group.  The four round robin groups for the boys, with their overall seeding in brackets:

Group A
Russia[1]
Spain[7]
Argentina
India

Group B
Germany[3]
Japan[5]
Norway
Mexico

Group C
USA[4]
Australia[6]
Netherlands
Bolivia

Group D
Korea[2]
Peru[8]
South Africa
France

The only seeded boys team to lose today was No. 8 Peru, who fell to South Africa 3-0.

In the USA's 3-0 win over the Netherlands, Weirsholm defeated Caspar Bonapart 6-0, 6-0 at No. 2,  Kozlov beat Tim Rijthoven 7-6(5), 6-4 at No. 1 and Wiersholm and Paul won the doubles 6-2, 6-3.

The US girls team, which consists of Katerina Stewart, Michaela Gordon and Kaitlyn McCarthy, is seeded third overall and first in their round robin group. The girls groups:

Group A
Russia[1]
Czech Republic[5]
Korea
Mexico

Group B
Hungary[4]
Egypt[7]
Bolivia
New Zealand

Group C
USA[3]
France[6]
Slovenia
Colombia

Group D
Australia[2]
Brazil[8]
Slovak Republic
Namibia

In the USA's 3-0 win over Slovenia, Gordon defeated Manca Pislak 6-2, 6-0 at No. 2 singles and Stewart downed Nina Potocnik 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(1). McCarthy and Gordon won the doubles when the Slovenians retired at 1-1 in the first set.

Unlike the boys competition today, which went as expected save for Peru's loss, the girls matches were quite competitive.  Top seed Russia needed to win the doubles to advance past Korea 2-1, and Mexico upset the fifth-seeded Czech Republic team.  Sandy Harwitt has more on the home team's victory in this article for the ITF Junior website.

In Group B, Bolivia beat No. 7 seed Egypt 2-1, and in Group D, both Australia and Brazil needed victories in the doubles to move past their unseeded opponents.

For complete results and draws, see the ITF tournament site.

Somewhat surprisingly, Great Britain is not represented in either competition, having failed to advance out of the European qualifying.
Whether that is of any concern to the new chief executive of the LTA is unknown, but if it is, Canadian Michael Downey will be the man addressing the problem, beginning on January 1, 2014.  Downey has been president of Tennis Canada for the past nine years.  For more on Downey's hiring and the current state of the LTA, see this article from the BBC.  For a Canadian perspective on what Downey is and is not responsible for in the resurgence of Canadian tennis recently, see this blog post from Canadian tennis journalist Tom Tebutt.