Tennis World's Top Juniors Competing in Lake Nona

The USTA announced that six top juniors were selected to represent the United States in the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup by BNP Paribas Finals, the premier 16-and-under world team competitions, to be held September 24-29 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla. This marks the first time that the event will be held in the United States since the 1994 Finals were staged in Tucson, Ariz.

The full U.S. team nominations include:

Junior Davis Cup

Martin Damm (15, Bradenton, Fla.; Coach: Martin Damm Sr.)

Toby Kodat (16, Bradenton, Fla.; Coach: Ales Kodat)

Dali Blanch (16, Orlando, Fla.; Coach: Daniel Garcia)

Captain: USTA National Coach Philippe Oudshoorn

Junior Fed Cup

Connie Ma (16, Dublin, Calif.; Coach: Max Taylor, Alex Poorta)

Robin Montgomery (15, Washington, D.C.; Coach: Ali Agnamba)

Katrina Scott (15, Woodland Hills, Calif.; Coach: Zibu Ncube)

Captain: USTA National Coach Jamea Jackson

The competition includes 16 nations on both the boys’ and girls’ sides, competing first in round-robin groups, then in a knockout bracket to determine the winner. The U.S. girls’ team is the two-time defending champions, winning their fifth title in 10 years in 2018, led then by teenage phenom Coco Gauff. For complete tournament information, visit the International Tennis Federation’s website.

Damm and Kodat, two Top-10-ranked juniors, teamed up to win the USTA Boys’ 18s National Championships earlier this summer, earning the pair a wild card into the US Open men’s doubles draw. The duo advanced to the second round, becoming the youngest men’s doubles team to win a US Open match in the Open era, 13 years after Damm’s father, Martin Damm Sr., won the US Open men’s doubles title. They’ll be joined by Blanch, who late last year reached the Orange Bowl Boys’ 16s singles final. He is the younger brother of American pro Ulises Blanch.

Ma is the lone returning player from last year’s Junior Fed Cup title-winning team. She is currently ranked No. 1 in the USTA Girls’ 18s National Rankings and earlier this year swept the singles and doubles titles at the USTA Girls’ 18s Winter National Championships held at the USTA National Campus. Montgomery, the No. 37-ranked junior in the world, reached the Easter Bowl Girls’ 18s singles final earlier this summer. Scott, ranked four spots behind Montgomery in the ITF’s junior rankings at No. 41, defeated Montgomery in the third round of the US Open Junior Championships earlier this month to reach the quarterfinals.

Tennis Channel will air more than 20 hours of live national linear coverage of the event, with coverage beginning daily at 11 a.m., on Tuesday, Sept. 24 featuring play-by-play announcer Russ Thaler and analyst Jimmy Arias.

The U.S. has won five Junior Fed Cup titles (2008, 2012, 2014, 2017-18) and three Junior Davis Cup titles (1999, 2008, 2014). 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 also represented their respective countries in the junior international team competition.

The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the U.S. and the leader in promoting and developing the growth of tennis at every level -- from local communities to the highest level of the professional game. A not-for-profit organization with more than 655,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds in growing the game. It owns and operates the US Open, one of the highest-attended annual sporting events in the world, and launched the US Open Series, linking seven summer WTA and ATP World Tour tournaments to the US Open. In addition, it owns approximately 90 Pro Circuit events throughout the U.S. and selects the teams for the Davis Cup, Fed Cup, Olympic and Paralympic Games. The USTA’s philanthropic entity, the USTA Foundation, provides grants and scholarships in addition to supporting tennis and education programs nationwide to benefit under-resourced youth through the National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) network. For more information about the USTA, go to USTA.com or follow the official accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat.