Junior Team Tennis 14U champions crowned

Junior tennis teams from New York and Texas took home the honors at the 2019 USTA Junior Team Tennis 14U National Championships, held at the McFarlin Tennis Center in San Antonio.

The championships brought together the top 28 teams at intermediate and advanced levels from various USTA sections throughout the country.

Competing in the advanced division, the New York team hails from the John McEnroe Tennis Academy at Sportime Randall’s Island and defeated the Texas Select Longhorns from Dallas, 51-43, in the final.

The Longhorns won both singles matches, with Yuki Asako defeating Giuseppe Cerasuolo, 6-2, 6-4, and Cody Huang rallying from a set down to beat Nina Wiese, 4-6, 6-3, [1-0].

But Zecheng Fang and Jacob Mann beat Lance Luong and Trooper Denson, 6-5, 6-4, in the boys' doubles; Olivia Benton and Chantajah Mills beat Chelsie Son and Mariansofia Aguirre, 6-3, 6-2, in the girls' doubles; and Cerasuolo and Wiese teamed up to defeat Hatie Berend and Mateo Galvez, 5-6, 6-0 [1-0], in the mixed doubles. 

The New York team is coached by Milo Hauk and features team members Benton, Cerasuolo, Ava Dahl, Fang, Mann, Mills, Wiese and Marco Ziets-Segura.

A team representing Northern California and based out of the Laguna Creek Sports Club edged the BTC team from the USTA Hawaii Pacific section, 51-49, in the third-place match.

In the intermediate division, teams from Texas reigned supreme and ensured the title would not leave the state.

The Texas Select Bears defeated another team from Texas, the King Daddy Tornadoes, 45-42, in the championship match. It marks the second year in a row that a Texas team won the 14U intermediate title.

The teams split the singles and doubles matches, with the Bears winning the boys' singles and doubles and the Tornadoes capturing the girls' singles and doubles matches. Sansh Kumar defeated Dong Thanh Do, 6-2, 6-3, in the boys' singles, before Katiana Gonzalez beat Willow Dymkowski, 6-2, 6-2, in the girls' match.

Avi Kumar and Aditya Gupta then defeated Timothy Nguyen and Gabriel Segubiense, 6-5, 6-2, to give the Bears the lead, before Laila Nguyen and Aly Ham toppled Bianca Harris and Aubrey Carroll, 6-2, 6-2, to tie the final at four sets each.

The final came down to the mixed doubles, with the Bears' combination of Dymkowski and Sansh Kumar beating Do and Jastine Escamos, 6-3, 6-3.

The Linx Heroes from the Mid-Atlantic section defeated the Mississippi Aces from the Southern section in the third-place match, 51-47. 

Established in 1991, USTA Junior Team Tennis provides youth with all of the health and social benefits of tennis in a coed, fun and competitive team environment, all while allowing participants to compete with and against individuals of similar ages and skill levels.

With more than 85,000 players competing nationwide, USTA Junior Team Tennis brings players together to enjoy camaraderie and teamwork, providing a fun environment for kids to learn that succeeding is really more about how they play the game, win or lose.