La Grange Tennis Player Selected for 2015 Team USTA National Junior Team

The USTA announced that top-ranked 16-year olds Sam Riffice and Oliver Crawford, along with Junior Davis Cup champion Gianni Ross of La Grange headline the eight junior boys selected for the 2015 Team USA National Junior Team.

Ross was a singles semifinalist at last summer’s USTA Boys’ 16s National Championships and helped the U.S. win its third Junior Davis Cup title in September, with world Top-10 juniors Michael Mmoh and William Blumberg.

The 2015 Team USA National Junior Team is a training program designed to give a collection of America’s best young players opportunities to train together during the summer and travel to play against top junior competition from around the world.

Players were selected for the team based on automatic qualifying criteria or through results in a qualifying playoff, held at the USTA Training Center in Boca Raton, Florida.

2015 Team USA National Junior Team – Boys

• #Trent Bryde (15, Suwanee, Ga.; Coach: Will Wright)
• #Oliver Crawford (16, Spartanburg, S.C.; Coach: Kelly Jones, Anthony Stewart)
• #William Howells (16, Boca Raton, Fla.; Coach: Cyril Saulnier)
• *Vasil Kirkov (16, Tampa, Fla.; Coaches: Stoyan Kirkov, Sylvain Guichard)
• *Sam Riffice (16, Roseville, Calif.; Coaches: Lori Riffice, Sylvain Guichard)
• #Gianni Ross (16, La Grange, Ill.; Coach: Jack Sharpe)
• #Alexandre Rotsaert (15, Boca Raton, Fla.; Coach: Hafeez Hameed)
• #Brian Shi (15, Jericho, N.Y.; Coach: Mihai Grecu)

* Automatic qualifier; # Qualified through playoff

USTA Player Development will provide coaching and travel assistance to select events throughout the summer, such as the junior US Open and the USTA Boys’ 18s and 16s National Championships in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

“All eight boys have tremendous potential and are on track to become good players. What is most encouraging is the relationship that we have developed with their primary coaches,” said USTA Player Development General Manager Martin Blackman. “Our National Coaches Sylvain Guichard and Jay Devashetty have done a great job of managing and cultivating the relationships. The primary coaches of these players are among the best in the country and are the type of coaches we need as partners in our mission to develop world-class players. A big thank you and congratulations to them from all of us at the USTA.”

Submitted by the USTA. Read more about the 2015 Team USA National Junior Team here.