6 Florida Players on 2017 U.S. Jr. Davis, Fed Cup, World Junior Tennis Teams

Bradenton’s Whitney Osuigwe (photo: www.zootennis.com)

Six Florida tennis juniors will represent the U.S. on Junior Davis Cup (16-under), Junior Fed Cup (16-under) and World Junior Tennis teams (14-under) at the North/Central America Qualifying for the competitions on April 27-29, 2017 in Campeche, Mexico.

The U.S. boy’s World Junior Tennis team will be an all-Florida squad comprised of Martin Damm (Bradenton), Alexander Bernard (Naples), and Toby Kodat (Bradenton). The team will be coached by Andy Brandi. Damm is the son of former Grand Slam doubles winner Martin Damm, while Bernard was a recent boy’s 14s winner at the Easter Bowl.

Boca Raton’s Charlotte Owensby was named to the U.S. girls’ World Junior Tennis team, joined by Cori Gauff (Atlanta), Gabby Price (Montabello, N.Y.), and captained by Maureen Diaz. Owensby is coming off the girls’ 14s title at the Easter Bowl.

Bradenton’s Whitney Osuigwe was named to the U.S. Junior Fed Cup team, joined by Caty McNally (Cincinnati, Ohio), Natasha Subhash (Fairfax, Va.), and captained by Erik Kortland. Osuigwe is also coming off a title at the Easter Bowl in the girls’ 18s doubles.

Boca Raton’s Will Grant was named to the U.S. Junior Davis Cup team along with Govind Nanda (Cerritos, Calif.) and Tristan Boyer (Altadena, Calif.), captained by Eric Nunez.

The North/Central American and Caribbean Qualifying rounds is three days of round-robin play, with each match-up consisting of two singles matches and one doubles match. The top two countries from each four-country pool will advance to the Junior Davis and Fed Cup Finals (Sept. 18-23 in Budapest, Hungary) and World Junior Tennis Finals (Aug. 7-12 in Prostejov, Czech Republic).

The U.S. has won three Junior Fed Cup titles (2008, 2012, 2014); three Junior Davis Cup titles (1999, 2008, 2014); six World Junior Tennis girls’ titles (1992, 2007-10, 2013) and four World Junior Tennis boys’ titles (2002-03, 2008, 2012).

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.

For more info go to http://www.itftennis.com/juniors/team-competitions/overview.aspx.