Fifteen year old Lindsay Burdette, from Jackson, GA, has accomplished more on the tennis court this year than many aspiring junior players even dream about. She captured two highly coveted titles, winning the Copper Bowl (16s) in Tucson, AZ and the highly prestigeous Easter Bowl (16s) in Palm Springs, CA. She also competed in her first professional tournament, Atlanta's Neighborhood Charter School USTA $25,000 Challenger, and earned herself the first ITF ranking of her young career.
Burdette will next take her game to the international team competition stage after being named to the Junior Fed Cup squad.
The 2003 North/Central America and Caribbean Regional Qualifying events will be played at the USA Tennis High Performance Headquarters May 23-25 in Key Biscayne, FL. The USTA will host events in two age groups - the World Junior Tennis Competition, the premier international team competitions for players 14 and under, and Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup for players 16 and under.
U.S. Teams Competing at the North/Central America and Caribbean Regional Championships:
World Junior Tennis-Boys’
Dennis Lajola, 14, Aiea, Hawaii
Leo Rosenberg, 13, Manhattan, KS
Donald Young, 13, Chicago, IL
Captain: Mike Sell, Marina del Ray, CA
World Junior Tennis-Girls’
Kimberly Couts, 14, Bradenton, FL
Alexa Glatch, 13, Newport Beach, CA
Logan Hansen, 13, Santa Monica, CA
Captain: Katie Schlukebir, Kalamazoo, MI
Junior Davis Cup
Chris Chirico, 15, Bradenton, FL
Michael Shabaz, 15, Fairfax, VA
Clancy Shields, 15, Grand Junction, CO
Captain: Roger Smith, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Junior Fed Cup
Lindsay Burdette, 15, Jackson, GA
Alessandra Jordan, 16, El Paso, TX
Jessica Nguyen, 15, Chatsworth, CA
Captain: Jai DiLouie, Key Biscayne, FL
“These players have accepted the honor of representing our country and the challenge of advancing the United States to the World Finals,” said Eliot Teltscher, Director, Tennis Operations, USA Tennis High Performance.
“These events give our kids a chance to play on a in a team situation with a coach on court and prepares them for the pressures of Davis Cup and Fed Cup play when they get older.”
The U.S. teams will face three other countries in a round-robin format. Canada and Mexico will compete in all four divisions. Guatemala (World Junior Tennis-boys), Puerto Rico (World Junior Tennis-girls), Panama (Junior Davis Cup) and Dominican Republic (Junior Fed Cup) round out the respective fields. Each match will consist of two singles matches followed by a doubles match.
The top two teams in each division advance to the 16-nation fields at the 2003 World Finals. The World Junior Tennis Finals will be held in Prostejov, Czech Republic, August 11-16.
The Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup World Finals will be played September 16-21 in Essen, Germany.
More than 100 countries participate in the ITF’s junior team competitions each year. The United States boys and girls have qualified for every World Junior Tennis and Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup competition since the events began in 1991 and 1985, respectively.
The American boys’ are the defending World Junior Tennis champions after winning their first title last year. The U.S. also won the World Junior Tennis girls’ title in 1992. The U.S. boys won the Junior Davis Cup (known then as the World Youth Cup) in 1999, but have never reached the Junior Fed Cup final.
Former U.S. junior international team members include: Jim Courier, Vince Spadea, Lindsay Davenport, Lisa Raymond, Jennifer Capriati, Andy Roddick and Chanda Rubin.
The USA Tennis High Performance program features enhanced coaching education programs, top supplemental coaching and training, international junior competition and USTA Pro Circuit and tour events. The USA Tennis High Performance will begin operations at a new state-of-the-are national training center in June in Carson, Calif. The new facility complements the USA Tennis High Performance Headquarters at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park in Key Biscayne, Fla., giving the program a significant presence in two of the sport’s hotbed developmental markets, Southern California and Florida.