Emulating Iga, Felix and Coco: 2021 junior team qualification to begin
Elina Svitolina won the first point of the Billie Jean King Cup era following the tournament’s rebrand and now a similar accolade is set to be bestowed upon a rising star with junior team competition assuming centre stage.
The first Junior Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas action since its evolution from Junior Fed Cup will take place on Monday as the 2021 North/Central America and Caribbean Final Qualifying gets underway in Merida, Mexico.
More than that, however, the three-day event will also determine which teams from the region will contest the Junior Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Finals in Antalya, Turkey and the ITF World Junior Tennis Finals in Prostejov, Czech Republic.
The ITF World Junior Tennis Finals will take place from 2-7 August and see 16 of the finest boys’ and girls’ teams on the planet in the 14-and-under age category do battle for silverware.
The Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup Finals, meanwhile, which bring together the best teams at 16-and-under level, will be hosted at the Club Mega Saray Tennis Academy, from 28 September to 3 October.
Czech Republic and Turkey qualify automatically for the boys’ and girls’ competitions they are hosting, while two nations from the North/Central America and Caribbean region will qualify for each event.
The other 13 teams will be determined through a series of regional qualifying stages over the coming months, with the boys’ 14-and-under Asia/Oceania qualifying in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan the next to take place from 7 June.
Next week’s qualifying on the clay courts of Merida, which is also the venue for the annual junior Grade A tournament, will take the form of a round-robin competition, with the two best-performing teams advancing.
The event will also see players, whether Canada’s Victoria Mboko, Karen Verduzco of Mexico, El Salvador’s Andres Rendon or whoever, take the first step towards potentially emulating some illustrious names.
Denis Shapovalov, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff are just some of the sport’s current stars to have won junior team titles with their nations in recent years. The inspiration for the modern-day vintage is clear and obvious.
Teams competing at the 2021 North/Central America and Caribbean Final Qualifying
ITF World Junior Tennis (Girls): Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Canada, Mexico
ITF World Junior Tennis (Boys): El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Canada, Mexico
Junior Davis Cup: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Canada, Mexico
Junior Billie Jean King Cup: El Salvador, Guatemala, Canada, Mexico
The draws for all four events and results can be viewed here.