My Recap, Video of USTA Boys 16s National Championships; Spizzirri Moves into US Open Main Draw; Leach Withdraws from US Open Jrs; ITF Corpus Christi Now J200 Level; USTA Announces Davis Cup Team

My recap of last week's USTA Boys 16s National Championships is up today at the Tennis Recruiting Network. Both finals featured comebacks, with singles champion Marcel Latak and doubles champions Lucas Smith and Shaan Majeed dropping the first set. The Tennis Recruiting Network article on Hannah Ayrault's Girls 16s title in San Diego can be found here.

A longer than usual YouTube video of the singles final is available at the tenniskalamazoo channel, or can be viewed below.

In my post yesterday on the US Open men's and women's wild cards, I noted that Brandon Holt(USC) was the next player in from qualifying if anyone withdrew and less than 24 hours later, Matteo Berrettini of Italy bowed out, elevating Holt and freeing up his main draw wild card. That went to Eliot Spizzirri(Texas), who qualified for the main draw last year. Spizzirri was the next highest American in the ATP rankings, at 125.

The up-to-date US Open entry list can be found here.

The withdrawal deadline for the US Open Junior Championships, which begin August 31st, is not until Tuesday, August 19, but yesterday Jagger Leach withdrew. Leach, No. 14 in the ITF junior rankings, did not play Kalamazoo due to an elbow injury.

Other top players who have withdrawn in the past two weeks are No. 9 Luna Vujovic of Serbia and 2024 USO girls semifinalist Mimi Xu. Xu also reached the semifinals of the Wimbledon Junior Championships this year.  I admit I didn't notice the entry of Maxim Mrva of the Czech Republic in my first review of the US Open Junior acceptance list. Mrva hasn't played a junior event since last December's Orange Bowl and has been playing Challenger events regularly, making one semifinal and three quarterfinals this year.

In looking at the ITF junior circuit schedule for this fall, I was delighted to see that the Corpus Christi Texas tournament, which is the week before the ITF Pan American J300 in Houston, has been upgrade to a J200. The tournament was previously a J60, so that is a major enhancement. The J100 and J200 levels have not been numerous in the United States, so this week's J100 in Maryland and the upgrade in Corpus Christi are signals from the USTA that the increase in ITF events they have been touting will not be confined to the lowest levels.

The USTA announced the Davis Cup team for next month's second round contest with the Czech Republic, with all four of the current top-ranked Americans named to the team. Although the US team has the better singles rankings, the Czech team is formidable and has a true doubles specialist in Pavlasek. As the release mentions, the captain can make three substitutions/additions to the team until the day before, and with the conclusion of the US Open just a few days before, it's likely that will have an impact on who ultimately plays for both teams.

Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul to Compete for U.S. Davis Cup Team vs. Czechia in Second Round Qualifier in Delray Beach September 12-13

 

Czech Roster to Feature Top-30 Singles Players Jakub Mensik, Tomas Machac and Jiri Lehecka as Both Nations Compete to Advance to 2025 Davis Cup Final 8

 

ORLANDO, Fla., August 14, 2025 – The USTA and U.S. Davis Cup Captain Bob Bryan today announced that all four of the top American men’s singles players – No. 4 Taylor Fritz, No. 6 Ben Shelton, No. 14 Frances Tiafoe and No. 16 Tommy Paul – have been named to compete for the U.S. in its Davis Cup Qualifying Second Round tie vs. Czechia September 12-13 at the Delray Beach Tennis Center in Delray Beach, Fla.

 

The Czech team will feature singles No. 17 Jakub Mensik, No. 24 Tomas Machac, No. 26 Jiri Lehecka, doubles No. 36 Adam Pavlasek and 19-year old Petr Brunclik.

 

This Second Round Qualifying competition is a best-of-five match series that will begin with two singles matches starting at 6 p.m. on Friday, September 12, then continue with a doubles match and two more singles matches beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturday, September 13. The first nation between the USA and Czechia to win three out of those five matches wins the Qualifier and will advance to the eight-nation Davis Cup Final 8 to compete for this year’s championship November 18-23 in Bologna, Italy.

 

Two-day and single-day ticket packages are available via Ticketmaster.com. Tennis Channel will carry coverage in the U.S.

 

Fritz, 27, is the top-ranked American man at No. 4 in the world in singles. He has a 7-3 record in Davis Cup singles over 10 ties played since making his debut in 2019. He’s logged a 36-14 record in singles on tour this year with two titles, and is a reigning US Open men’s singles finalist.

 

Shelton, 22, is ranked No. 6 in singles on the heels of winning his first career ATP Masters 1000 singles title last week at the National Bank Open in Toronto. He’s gone 32-16 in singles on tour this year, including runs to the Australian Open semifinals and Wimbledon quarterfinals, and is set to compete in his second Davis Cup tie.

 

Tiafoe, 27, is ranked No. 14 in singles and will be making his sixth Davis Cup appearance since debuting in 2018. He’s reached the US Open singles semifinals two out of the last three years and was a 2025 French Open quarterfinalist.

 

Paul, 28, is ranked No. 16 in singles and has played in 10 Davis Cup ties, logging a 5-3 singles record since debuting in 2020. He reached the quarterfinals at both the Australian Open and the French Open in 2025.

 

Captains may make up to three combined substitutions / additions to their rosters up until the day prior to the competition starting.

 

Delray Beach has historically provided a veritable home-court advantage for the USA in international team tennis competition. The U.S. Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup teams are 5-0 all-time when competing at the Delray Beach Tennis Center. The U.S. Davis Cup Team last played in Delray in 2004 and defeated Sweden with Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish, and Bob and Mike Bryan. The U.S. Billie Jean King Cup Team played a Qualifier at the Delray Beach Tennis Center in 2023 and swept Austria behind local native Coco Gauff—an event that generated nearly $1 million for the local economy.

Wilson is the Official Ball of the U.S. Davis Cup Team.

 

What might have been a preview of one of those Davis Cup matches took place this evening at the ATP Masters 1000 in Cincinnati, with Ben Shelton(Florida) defeating Jiri Lehecka 6-4, 6-4. The fifth-seeded Shelton, now on a nine-match winning streak after taking the Toronto 1000 title last week, is through to the quarterfinals, where he'll play No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany. 

Coco Gauff has advanced to the quarterfinals at the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati, with the No. 2 seed scheduled to play No. 7 seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy tomorrow night.