The United States made world junior team competition history today, when the 16-and-under boys and girls captured the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup titles in Mexico. The 14-and-under teams won their competition last month in the Czech Republic, giving the older players an opportunity to do what no other country had ever done--win all four in the same year.
Although faced with less than ideal weather, the hard courts and the altitude in San Luis Potosi may have helped the American teams. Arriving a week early to get acclimated, the U.S. brought strong teams, and the girls were given the No. 1 seed and the boys were pegged at No. 3.
Throughout the week, both teams dominated, not once losing a match or facing a must-win doubles contest. That continued today, with the boys defeating No. 5 seed Argentina 2-0 and the girls beating No. 4 seeded Great Britain 2-0.
Evan King started with a three-set win over Andrea Collarini at No. 2 singles, and Denis Kudla gave the U.S. boys their first Junior Davis Cup win since 1999 with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Agustin Velotti at No. 1. The doubles was not played.
The girls second match, after Christina McHale had routinely accounted for Heather Watson 6-2, 6-2 at No. 2 singles, contained all the drama. Kristie Ahn saved a match point with Tara Moore serving at 5-3 in the third, and went on to win four straight games to earn the U.S. its first-ever Junior Fed Cup title.
Eleanor Preston talked to Ahn, and to captains David Roditi and Roger Smith and to the third players on the U.S. teams, Sloane Stephens and Raymond Sarmiento, at the ITF Junior website. The celebration photos by Susan Mullane are also filled with the excitement of the moment.
It is also an appropriate time to recognize those on the North American qualifying teams that were not selected for the finals--Jordan Cox and Brooke Bolender and Beatrice Capra. As Roditi told Preston, "They know that it’s a big deal to be here representing their country because they are part of a very good class from the USA. We could have picked three other guys, five other guys to come and play and they know that they were selected from a very deep group of US players."
The same holds true for the girls, who only beat out Canada for the lone North American qualifying spot when Bolender and Capra fought back to take an extremely close doubles match, sealing the win.
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