While most of their peers were contending for USTA National titles, six U.S. boys and girls were in the Czech Republic last week, representing their country in the 14-and-under world team competiton.
The girls team of Nicole Gibbs, Sloane Stephens and Stephanie Vidov snared the title, the first for the U.S. girls since 1992. The ITF Junior website has a detailed account of the finals which saw the U.S. defeat France 2-1. (The format is two singles matches followed by a doubles match.) The competition has been dominated by former Eastern bloc countries for the past decade, with names such as Nicole Vaidisova, Anna Tchakvetadze and Dinara Safina among those who competed in the event. The red clay isn't a surface likely to favor the American playing style, so the win is especially impressive. Unfortunately, I can't find any other news reports about the girls' victory.
Not so the boys event, which was won by Australia, the first time that country has taken the gold medal. The Age posted this story about their victory. My husband Paul and I had gotten to know Joey Swaysland at the Junior Orange Bowl in 2005, when he played the 12s then ran into him when we were in Melbourne for the Australian Open in January of 2006, but had wondered how he was doing when he wasn't at the Eddie Herr or the Junior Orange Bowl 14s last December. It's nice to see that he is still excelling on the tennis court.
The U.S. team of Mika De Coster, Emmett Egger and Christian Harrison finished third, the highest US boys finish since 2003, when Donald Young led the U.S. to the gold over a team from Japan.
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