The international Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup competitions for 16-and-under players begin tomorrow in Egypt, with both the teams from the United States seeded second.
The US girls won the title last year and will be going for their fifth straight title, but they are seeded behind Czechia, which features WT junior No. 3 Jana Kovackova and No. 20 Katerina Zajickova and are two-time junior slam doubles champions. The United States team consists of No. 12 Jordyn Hazelitt, No. 31 Welles Newman and No. 64 Hannah Ayrault. New USTA National Coach Dave Secker is the captain. The only time the US girls have not won the title since 2017 was in 2021, when the USTA declined to send teams to the competition due to the pandemic. Czechia won the title in their absence.
The US boys have won two titles in succession, but 16-year-olds Jordan Lee and Michael Antonius, who were on last year's championship team and are eligible to compete again this year, have opted out. The US team consists of No. 81 Teodor Davidov, No. 135 Izyan Ahmad and No. 250 Gadin Arun, who replaced previously announced team member Tomas Laukys. Sylvain Guichard, returns as captain after guiding the team to the title last year.
The top seed in the boys draws is Australia, who has WT junior No. 75 Taiki Takizawa, No. 133 Ethan Domingo and No. 214 Har Abir Sekhon.
The US girls play Slovakia and the boys play India in group play Monday, with each of the four groups below sending two teams to the quarterfinals.
Junior Billie Jean King Cup
Group 1
Czechia[1]
Colombia[8]
Australia
Taiwan
Group 2
Japan[4]
Great Britain[7]
Brazil
Egypt
Group 3
Ukraine[3]
Spain[5]
Korea
Tunisia
Group 4
USA[2]
Romania[6]
Canada
Slovakia
Junior Davis Cup
Group 1
Australia[1]
Egypt[6]
Serbia
Canada
Group 2
Brazil[3]
Spain[5]
Hungary
Morocco
Group 3
Japan[4]
Czechia[7]
Italy
Venezuela
Group 4
USA[2]
France[8]
Kazakhstan
India
The full list of Junior Davis Cup players is here; the full list of Junior Billie Jean King Cup players is here. The World Tennis preview is here. Live streaming is available here.
Dylan Dietrich faced his toughest contest in his 10-match ATP Challenger winning streak this month in today's final of the Sioux Falls 100-level tournament. The University of Virginia senior lost his first set in that streak to No. 5 seed Liam Draxl(Kentucky) of Canada, but was able to rebound for a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory.
"I think at the beginning I was a little bit hesitant because I was not focusing on my side enough," the 22-year-old from Switzerland told press aide Greg Sharko, after admitting that he had expected Draxl to show more signs of fatigue from his two three-setters in the quarterfinals and semifinals. "Then I corrected that in the second set, told myself I'm just going to try every single point, being maybe a little bit more offensive, a little bit more aggressive, try to come in a little bit more, and that worked out great."
In the doubles final Saturday, No. 4 seeds Jarno Jans of the Netherlands and Joran Vliegen(East Carolina) of Belgium defeated No. 2 seeds Miguel Reyes-Varela(Texas) and Reese Stalder(TCU) 6-4, 7-6(7).
Caroline Dolehide defeated 17-year-old Julieta Pareja 6-4, 6-3 in the battle of unseeded Americans in the final of the
W100 in New Braunfels Texas today. The 28-year-old from Illinois, who has a WTA career-high ranking of 32, will move back into the WTA Top 200 with the title, while Pareja's ranking will rise to a career high of 202.
Emery Combs won her first Pro Circuit singles title a day after claiming her first Pro Circuit doubles title yesterday at the
W15 in Sumter South Carolina. The 15-year-old from Conway South Carolina captured a second winner's trophy when qualifier Malwina Rowinska(Florida, FAU) of Poland retired after losing the first set 6-4. I believe Combs now joins Ekaterina Dotsenko of Russia as the only girls born in 2011 with a World Tennis women's singles title.
At the
W35 in Norman Oklahoma, No. 5 seed Alina Shcherbinina(Baylor, Oklahoma) of Russia defeated No. 2 seed Dana Guzman(Oklahoma) of Peru 7-5, 6-4 to win her fourth, and biggest title, all of them coming in 2026. She should move into the WTA Top 500 when the points are added a week from Monday.
No. 4 seed Lui Maxted of Great Britain, the fall 2024 NCAA doubles champion while a senior at TCU, won the
M25 in Norman, coming back to beat No. 5 seed Tyler Zink(Georgia, Oklahoma State) 6-7(1), 7-5, 6-3 in three hours and nine minutes. It's the third M25 singles title for the 22-year-old, who has claimed six M25 doubles titles.
2025 NCAA singles champion Reese Brantmeier added a second straight W75 title today, with the No. 7 seed beating No. 3 seed Katherine Sebov of Canada 6-3, 6-1 in the
Toronto final. The recent North Carolina graduate will now move into the WTA Top 200 for the first time and with the 170 points she's earned in the past three weeks in Canada, she is in the driver's seat for the USTA's Australian Open reciprocal wild card, with one week remaining in the women's race.
A fourth American woman won a title this week in North America, with 23-year-old Malaika Rapolu capturing the
W50 in Morelia Mexico. The former University of Texas standout, seeded No. 4, defeated No. 2 seed Anastasia Tikhonova of Russia 6-4, 6-0 in the final, recording her fifth consecutive straight-sets victory. Now at a career-high 255 in the live rankings, Rapolu is making a push for a place in qualifying at the 2027 Australian Open.
Fiona Crawley(North Carolina) lost in the final of the
W75 in Glasgow Scotland, with the fifth seed falling to No. 7 seed Suzan Lamens of the Netherlands 6-4, 6-3.
The
M25 in Las Vegas has been disrupted by rain for three days now, and the final between Andres Santamarta(Virginia) of Spain and JC Roddick(UCF, Texas A&M) is in another delay after three games were played.
The doubles final was played last night, with No. 3 seeds Jack Anthrop(Ohio State) and Noah Zamora(UC-Irvine) defeating top seeds Oliver Okonkwo of Great Britain and Jack Vance 7-6(8), 4-6, 10-8.
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