Beatrice Capra of Ellicott City, Md., was selected to represent the United States this weekend at the Junior Fed Cup qualifying event in Montreal. The 16-year-old, who is currently ranked 47th in the USTA girls' 18s, will be sharing her thoughts and experiences with USTA.com each day from the competition.
Day 2: Saturday, May 3
I am sitting here in the lobby after a hard day’s work of matches with my fellow USA teammates, Kristie Ahn, Brooke Bolender, Evan King and Jordan Cox. Today we had a great win over the Bahamas, but enough about that. I’ll tell you more about the other fun stuff that happened.
Let me first start out with the “pump-up circle” that was conducted by Evan. It was a circle consisting of all our U.S. teams, and Evan got us all pumped by dancing and yelling some funny and encouraging words. So that got us really pumped for our matches.
Another amusing thing happened during our doubles match. Our coach, Robin White, couldn’t stop laughing during the changeovers because one of the girls whiffed an easy sitter. One more thing during the doubles, Kristie went for a ball out wide, and she got caught in the netting, and it literally wrapped around her. It was great! Even though that actually happened yesterday.
When we aren’t on the court, we are usually supporting our other USA teams that are competing on other courts. It’s really fun in a team atmosphere, and you get really energetic! When the competition’s over for the day, we go back and hang out at the hotel and take lots of pictures, get on the computer, play cards, do schoolwork (sometimes) and chill with the other players. The lunches at the site are pretty good, except for the soup, which burned my tongue so bad!
Anyway, I’m going to go get some stuff ready for tomorrow because we are playing Canada, which will be our toughest opponent so far. We're really pumped, especially for Evan’s “pump-up circle” tomorrow morning, which is beginning to be a routine.
Wish us luck, and I’ll let you know how it goes, as well as other news tomorrow. Bye!
Day 1: Friday, May 2
Hey everyone. This is Beatrice Capra reporting from the Junior Fed Cup in Montreal.
It was a good day for the U.S. in all age groups. We started the day early, waking up at 6:20 a.m. All the teams met for breakfast at around 7, and after breakfast we all took the shuttle and headed toward the courts.
After a 30-minute warm up, we had the opening ceremony, and then the matches began. Our first opponent was Mexico, and I played the first match. I went out there very nervous and tight, but after losing the first game, I came back and won the first set, 6-1. In the second set, I was able to settle my nerves and win, 6-3.
Kristie Ahn played next, and she played great and dictated the whole match, winning, 6-0, 6-1.
After taking a 30-minute lunch break, Brooke Bolender and Kristie played the doubles match. It was a tough match. They played great the first set, winning it, 6-2, but then their opponents started playing better and pulled out a tough second set, 7-6. Brooke and Kristie got down, 3-1, in the third and then started playing more consistent and aggressive and won the third, 6-3.
The 14 USA girls played Guatemala today and won all their matches without losing a game. The boys also did well, winning all their matches, too.
Tomorrow we play the Bahamas, so hopefully everyone will keep up the great work. I'll keep you guys updated on how we do! Thanks!
Junior Davis Cup Blog: Evan King