Top U.S. Juniors to Compete in World Team Event Qualies in Mexico
May 4, 2022
ORLANDO, Fla., May 3, 2022 – The United States Tennis Association (USTA) announced the 12 top juniors nominated to represent the U.S. in the qualifying rounds of the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas (16-and-under) and the ITF World Junior Tennis (14-and-under), the world’s premier junior team competitions. The events will be played on May 5-7 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
The North/Central American and Caribbean Final Qualifying rounds consist of three days of round-robin play, with each matchup consisting of two singles matches and one doubles match. The top two countries from each four-country pool will advance to the event finals later this year. The 2022 Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas Finals will take place in Antalya, Turkey, Nov. 1-6, while the ITF World Junior Tennis Finals will take place in Prostejov, Czech Republic.
This is the first time the U.S. will be competing in these events since 2019 after all junior events were canceled in 2020 and the U.S. opted to not send teams in 2021 due to concerns surrounding COVID-19. The U.S. Junior Billie Jean King Cup team was the three-time defending champions heading into last year’s competition, while the U.S. boys won consecutive World Junior Tennis titles in 2018 and 2019. The U.S. Junior Davis Cup reached the final of the 2019 event, which was held at the USTA National Campus.
The full U.S. team nominations:
Junior Davis Cup
Nikita Filin (15; Wilmette, Ill.)
Rudy Quan (16; Thousand Oaks, Calif.)
Alex Razeghi (15; Humble, Texas)
Captain: Jon Glover
Junior Billie Jean King Cup
Maya Joint (16; Grosse Pointe, Mich.)
Iva Jovic (14; Torrance, Calif.)
Mia Slama (16; Boca Raton, Fla.)
Captain: Jamea Jackson
ITF World Junior Tennis – Boys
Keaton Hance (13; Torrance, Calif.)
Jack Kennedy (13, Huntington, N.Y.)
Carel Ngounoue (13; Washington, D.C.)
Captain: Jose Caballero
ITF World Junior Tennis – Girls
Tyra Grant (14; Bordighera, Italy)
Shannon Lam (13; East Brunswick, N.J.)
Julieta Pareja (13; Carlsbad, Calif.)
Captain: Lori Riffice
The U.S. has won six Junior Billie Jean King Cup titles (2008, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019); three Junior Davis Cup titles (1999, 2008, 2014); seven World Junior Tennis girls’ titles (1992, 2007-10, 2013, 2017) and six World Junior Tennis boys’ titles (2002-03, 2008, 2012, 2018, 2019). Former U.S. junior international team members include Jim Courier, Andy Roddick, James Blake, Lindsay Davenport, and Sloane Stephens. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic also have represented their respective countries in junior international team competition.