By E.J. Crawford, USTA.com
The American juniors continued their recent run of success, with Team USA finishing second in Junior Fed Cup and fourth in Junior Davis Cup.
The U.S. and Russia were the only countries to advance to the semifinals in both the Junior Fed Cup Finals and the Junior Davis Cup Finals, held Sept. 27 – Oct. 2 in Budapest, Hungary.
The Junior Fed Cup and Junior Davis Cup results come on the heels of the U.S.’s strong showings in the junior Grand Slams over the past two years. American boys won three of the four boys’ singles titles at majors in 2015, and this year American girls reached the singles final at the French Open Junior Championships, won the Wimbledon girls’ doubles title and swept the singles and doubles at the US Open Junior Championships.
Led by French Open girls’ singles runner-up Amanda Anisimova, Wimbledon girls’ doubles champion Claire Liu (pictured above) and Caty McNally, the U.S. placed second in Junior Fed Cup for the second consecutive year and just missed out on a fourth title since 2008. Team USA won Junior Fed Cup, the 16-and-under equivalent of Fed Cup, in 2008, 2012 and 2014.
The American girls went 9-0 in individual matches in rolling to a 3-0 record in pool play to advance to the semifinals. They then swept Japan, 3-0, in the semis to extend that record to 12-0.
Their run came to an end in the final, with the Americans dropping a 2-1 decision to the Poles. After splitting the two singles matches, the final came down to the decisive doubles, where Maja Chwalinska and Iga Swiatek defeated Liu and McNally to clinch the victory for Poland.
For the Junior Fed Cup, Anisimova went 4-1 in singles, Liu went 4-0 and McNally went 1-0. In doubles, Liu and McNally went 4-1.
Each Junior Fed Cup and Junior Davis Cup tie consists of three matches – two singles and one doubles – with a team needing to win at least two of three matches to claim the tie.
In Junior Davis Cup, the U.S. boys won their pool with a 2-1 record before falling to top seed Canada, 2-1, in the semifinals. In the semis, Sangeet Sridhar won his match at No. 2 singles to force the decisive doubles, which the U.S. lost in a match tiebreak, 5-7, 6-2, [10-5], to the powerhouse team of US Open boys’ singles champion Felix Auger-Aliassime and his partner, Chih Chi Huang.
The Americans then dropped the third-place match to Argentina, also 2-1.
Team USA was led by Sebastian Korda, Keenan Mayo and Sridhar, though Mayo injured his ankle during the event, leaving Korda and Sridhar to play both singles and doubles for all but the squad’s first tie against Switzerland.
The Junior Davis Cup and Jr. Fed Cup Finals featured 16 teams each, with the winners of each of the four pools advancing to the semifinal round and competing for the 2016 championship. Teams advanced to the Finals through regional qualifying.
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