This weekend, the U.S. team of John Isner, Sam Querrey and Bob and Mike Bryan will take on Brazil in a Davis Cup first-round tie held at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla. Training and watching will be a gathering of talented teenagers who hope to one day play on the same stage.

 

In all, eight up-and-coming junior boys were selected to take part in the USTA Player Development Davis Cup camp, held Thursday, Jan. 31, through Sunday, Feb. 3, in Jacksonville. The camp is designed as an opportunity for some of the nation’s top 14- and 15-year-old juniors to train with one another as well as to watch and interact with the U.S. Davis Cup team.

 

Those selected to participate are Stefan Kozlov (14, Pembroke Pines, Fla.), Henrik Wiersholm, (15, Kirkland, Wash.), William Blumberg (15, Greenwich, Conn.), Jake Devine (15, Boca Raton, Fla.), Eduardo Nava (15, Woodland Hills, Calif.), Reilly Opelka (15, Palm Coast, Fla.), Alfredo Perez (15, Coral Gables, Fla.) and Nathan Ponwith (14, Scottsdale, Ariz.).

 

At No. 66, Kozlov is the youngest player in the Top 70 of the ITF World Junior Rankings; he competed for the U.S. Junior Davis Cup team (16 and under) in the fall of 2012, going 4-1 in singles to help the U.S. to a third-place finish. Wiersholm, ranked No. 137 in the world among players 18 and under, is the reigning USTA Boys’ 16s national champion. And Blumberg, who trains at the USTA Training Center-East at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y., captured three ITF junior singles titles this past fall.

 

The Davis Cup camp is being led by USTA national coaches Diego Moyano and Eric Nunez.