Team USA wins second straight Junior Fed Cup

Coco Gauff and Alexa Noel clinched victory for the U.S. Junior Fed Cup Team over Ukraine in Sunday's final in Budapest, Hungary, saving a match point before winning a decisive doubles rubber to give the U.S. its second consecutive Junior Fed Cup title.

The American team, featuring Gauff  (14, Delray Beach, Fla.), Noel (16, Summit, N.J.) and Connie Ma (15, Dublin, Calif.), won all six ties played over the six days of the Junior Fed Cup competition, from Sept. 25-30, defeating Brazil, Japan, Latvia, Australia, Slovakia and Ukraine en route to the title. 

"It's been a privilege to represent our country, and we've all been so supportive of eah other and that really helped us out the entire week," said Noel, the world No. 10 junior.

Against the second-seeded Ukrainian team, the U.S. dropped the opening match in the best-of-three tie before fighting back to win a pair of three-setters.

Gauff forced the deciding doubles rubber by defeating Dasha Lopatetskaya, 6-1, 4-6, 6-0, after Noel fell to Lyubov Kostenko, 6-4, 6-1. The pair came from behind to win the doubles match in a third-set match tiebreak, 5-7, 6-4, [11-9], after trailing 1-4 and 6-8 in the decider.. 

"We had to trust our games," said Gauff, the reigning junior French Open champ and world No. 4. "In the match tiebreaker we played super aggressive, which proved to be the difference."

It was the fifth consecutive final appearance for the U.S. Junior Fed Cup team, and the title was the team's fifth in the past 11 years (2008, 2012, 2014, 2017-18). 

The U.S. Junior Davis Cup Team defeated Hungary on Sunday to finish ninth in the boys' competition, with Alex Lee  (16, Oak Brook, Ill.), Toby Kodat (15, Bradenton, Fla.) and Martin Damm (14, Bradenton, Fla.) representing Team USA.

USTA National Coach Erik Kortland captained the Junior Fed Cup team, while USTA National Coach Eric Nunez captained the Junior Davis Cup Team.

For full results and scores, visit the ITF website.