By Sally Milano, USTA.com
Eight junior boys qualified for the 2016 Team USA National Junior Team, a training program designed to give some of America’s best young players, born in either 2000 or 2001, opportunities to train together during the summer and travel to play against top junior competition from around the world.
The boys who earned a spot on the team are: Christian Alshon of Boca Raton, Fla.; Andrew Fenty of Washington, D.C.; Michael Heller of Weston, Fla.; Jaycer Lyeons of San Antonio; Govind Nanda of Cerritos, Calif.; Adam Neff of Bradenton, Fla.; Axel Nefve of Hinsdale, Ill.; and Sangeet Sridhar of Glendale, Ariz.
The players qualified for the team through a playoff, held last weekend at the USTA Training Center Headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla. The boys were invited to the playoff based on their tournament results and their USTA national or ITF world rankings. Click here to see the boys' team selection criteria.
Alshon, the No. 2-rated player in the USTA Boys’ 16s national standings, won the boys’ 16s singles title at the USTA Winter National Championships in December and recently reached the boys’ 16s singles quarterfinals at the prestigious Easter Bowl junior tournament. Fenty, the son of former Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty, is the No. 12-ranked sophomore in the country according to the Tennis Recruiting Network, while Heller is its No. 5-ranked freshman nationally. Lyeons, also a boys’ 16s quarterfinalist at the 2016 Easter Bowl, is rated the No. 1 freshman in America by the Tennis Recruiting Network.
Nanda has risen more than 600 spots in the ITF World Junior Rankings for all players ages 18 and under in 2016, to No. 212, after winning an ITF singles title in Guatemala and reaching two additional ITF singles finals. Neff, who has been profiled by The Wall Street Journal, was a boys’ 16s singles quarterfinalist at the Easter Bowl and a finalist at the USTA International Spring Championships this year. Nefve defeated Neff for the USTA International Spring Championships Boys’ 16s singles title, and Sridhar reached the boys’ 16s semifinals at the prestigious Eddie Herr junior tournament in December.
USTA Player Development will provide the National Junior Team with training opportunities and coaching and travel assistance to select ITF junior tournaments throughout the summer, beginning with the Delray Beach ITF junior event on April 28.
Click here for the girls’ team selections.