The Junior Davis Cup finals start in Turkey tomorrow and the draw has been made, pitting us against 4th seeds Italy, the Czech Republic and India in the group stage. The nominated team of Henry Searle, Viktor Frydrych and Oliver Bonding will have their work cut out particularly against Italy and the Czech Republic who both have a top 100 ranked player in their squad. Live scores and streaming should be available via the ITF site and/or Youtube We have won the JDC once - in 2011 with Evan Hoyt, Kyle Edmund and Luke Bambridge
Day 1 saw a 2-1 defeat against seeded Italy, but that represents an improvement on their encounter in the qualifying tournament when the Italians did not drop a set. Henry posted a fine win against a top 100 opponent but they couldn't make an impression in the deciding doubles. They play the Czech Republic next, who have a top 50 ranked player Maxim Mrva - comfortably the highest ranked 2007 in the world. As the Czech Republic beat India 3-0 victory tomorrow is essential to maintain the slim chance of taking the trophy. Live scores can be found here. There are a couple of live streamed courts with links here, but it is very unlikely that we will be on either streamed court, at least during the round robin. An overview of all the groups and matches can be found here
RR1 (4)Italy 2 GBR 1
Lorenzo Carboni beat Oliver Bonding 6-4 6-1 Francesco Cina lost to Henry Searle 6-3 3-6 0-6 Carboni/Cina beat Frydrych/Searle 6-2 6-3
Despite a valiant effort from Henry against a top 50 opponent the British team lost 3-0 to the Czech Republic, so will play India tomorrow (who lost 3-0 to Italy) for seeding rights in the 9th-16th play-offs
RR2 GBR 0 Czech Republic 3
Viktor Frydrych lost to Petr Brunclik 2-6 2-6
Henry Searle lost to Maxim Mrva 6-7(5) 7-5 3-6
Bonding/Frydrych lost to Brunclik/Hanzelin 6-7(1) 4-6
A 3-0 victory today, though tighter than that sounds - Turkey have one player ranked higher than our trio, who pushed Henry. Tomorrow we play Paraguay if I read the draw correctly, effectively playing for 9th-12th
9th - 16th play-offs
Turkey 0 GBR 3
Kerem Yilmaz lost to Viktor Frydrych 6-7(4) 4-6
Atakan Karahan lost to Henry Searle 7-5 4-6 6-7(5)
Buluk/Yilmaz lost to Bonding/Frydrych 4-6 6-2 [5-10]
The team lost out in a match tiebreak of the deciding doubles so will play Morocco tomorrow for 11th place. Elsewhere Brazil won a deciding doubles against Italy to make the final against USA or France (currently playing a deciding doubles). In the Billie Jean King Cup the final will be between the USA and the Czech Republic
9th - 12th play-offs
GBR 1 Paraguay 2
Oliver Bonding lost to Nunez Alex Santino 2-6 6-3 [7-10]
Henry Searle beat Thiago Drozkowski 6-1 6-0
Bonding/Searle lost to Drozkowski/Santino 6-7(5) 6-4 [7-10]
A tight final match sees us finish in 11th place. Oliver Bonding will still be eligible next year, so hopefully he can progress and lead a team to challenge for the title This year's was won by Brazil, led by Joao Fonseca (JWR44), while the Billie Jean King Cup went to the USA, Clervie Ngounoue (who recently reached a $25K final) beating Tereza Valentova (JWR11) in the key top singles
11th-12 play-off
GBR 2 Morocco 1
Viktor Frydrych lost to Amine Jamji 6-2 7-5
Henry Searle beat Reda Bennani 1-6 6-2 [10-7]
Bonding/Searle beat Bennani/Benyahia 6-3 6-7(4) [10-8]