India drawn with USA, France, Kazakhstan in Davis Cup Junior Finals Group D

Davis Cup Junior Finals: India drawn in Group D with USA, France & Kazakhstan

Cairo, Nov 2

Davis Cup Juniors is the premier international team competition for boys aged 16. The Indian Under-16 boys team qualified for the prestigious Junior Davis Cup World Finals after finishing 4th overall in Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying tournament held at the Beeline Arena in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.

Hruthik Katakam, Ribhav Saroha and Tavish Pahwa are selected to represent the country in the junior tournament.

Group A includes Australia, Egypt, Serbia, and Canada. Group B consists of Brazil, Spain, Hungary, and Morocco. Group C features Japan, Czechia, Italy, and Venezuela. Finally, Group D rounds out the tournament with the USA, France, Kazakhstan, and India.

The tournament will take place from November 2 to 8 at the Smash Sporting Club, with the teams bidding to be crowned the world's best in the 16-and-under age category.

Finals will be contested as four round-robin groups of four teams over the first three days of play, followed by a rest day and then the knockout stages.

Ties consist of three matches - two singles matches and one doubles match. The top two nations in each group will advance to the quarter-finals, while the teams finishing in the bottom two will contest positional play-offs.

Sixteen teams will now compete at the Finals, which will take place at the Smash Sporting Club. The 16 nations that have qualified for the 2026 Davis Cup Junior Finals are Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czechia, Egypt, France, Hungary, Italy, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Serbia, Spain, the USA, and Venezuela.

It will be the first time the leading national team competition for players aged 16 and under is being held in Africa. Over the past decade, Hungary, the United States, Turkey, Spain and Chile have staged the iconic event, with Chile hosting most recently on the clay of Santiago's Estadio Nacional.

Clay is the surface of choice this year, as the Smash Sporting Club welcomes some of the world's best junior players. The 20-acre venue is located to the west of the capital and has been home to the World Tennis Tour Juniors J500 Cairo tournament since 2023.

Davis Cup Junior Finals Draw

Group A: Australia, Egypt, Serbia, Canada

Group B: Brazil, Spain, Hungary, Morocco

Group C: Japan, Czechia, Italy, Venezuela

Group D: USA, France, Kazakhstan, India

— IANS