Junior Fed Cup, Junior Davis Cup Begins Tuesday in Spain; Sah Sweeps Grade 5 in Puerto Rico; IHC Videos

The draws for the 16-and-under Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup competitions in Madrid were revealed today, with the United States' girls team given the No. 2 seed and the United States' boys team seeded No. 3.  This means both are seeded No. 1 in their round robin groups.

The seeding for the Junior Fed Cup:
1. Czech Republic
2. United States
3. Russia
4. Canada
5-8: Australia, Spain, Great Britain and Brazil.

The seeding for the Junior Davis Cup:
1. Canada
2. Australia
3. United States
4. Russia
5-8 Germany, Argentina, Czech Republic and Japan

The United States was forced to change its team when Gianni Ross, its No. 3, could not make the trip due to illness, with Patrick Kypson replacing him. The US is not the only team with a late change, with four others substituting from the original nominations early this month.

Canada has lost its No. 2 Katherine Sebov, with Vanessa Wong replacing her. The other three changes are in Junior Davis Cup.  The Czech Republic lost its No. 2, Tomos Jirousek, Germany lost its No. 2, Rudolf Molleker, and Poland's No. 3, Michal Sikorski is out.

The complete roster of all 32 teams is available at the ITF tournament page.  Live streaming will be available via tennisjuniortv, but only for courts 2 & 3, which on Tuesday feature top seeds the Czech Republic and Canada.

In addition to the three titles US juniors claimed at the Grade 2 last week in Montreal, the Grade 5 in Puerto Rico also proved rewarding for four US juniors.  Sixteen-year-old Timothy Sah, playing in just his second ITF tournament, won both the singles and the doubles titles. The unseeded San Diego resident won all five of his singles matches in straight sets, beating No. 2 seed Sebastian Quiros of Costa Rica 6-2, 6-0 in the final.

The doubles title came with more drama, with Sah and 15-year-old partner Russell Benkaim, unseeded, beating unseeded Alex Diaz and Ignacio Garcia of Puerto Rico 3-6, 6-3, 13-11 in the final.

Top seed Nandini Das of India won the girls singles, defeating unseeded Nadia Gizdova 6-2, 7-5 in the final.  Top seeds Jenna Dean and Jimena Rodriguez-Benito won the doubles title, beating No. 3 seeds Anne-Sophie Courteau and Allisandra Valk of Canada 7-5, 6-2 in the championship match.

I finally processed the videos from the finals of the ITF Grade 1 International Hard Court Championships last month in College Park, Maryland.  The videos of championships Felix Auger Aliassime and Anna Kalinskaya are below. Finalist Denis Shapovalov's video is here; FinalistTereza Mihalikova's video is here.