Florida’s Kuzuhara Leads U.S. Team to ITF World Juniors Boys’ Title

Florida 14 year old Bruno Kuzuhara last weekend lead the U.S. ITF juniors boys’ team to the title, a first for the U.S. since 2012, in Prostejov, Czech Republic at the ITF World Junior Tennis boys’ championship.

The Cocunut Creek native was 5-0 in singles during the tournament, in the final beating the Czech Republic’s Oldrich Vejsicky 6-0, 6-0, en route to the U.S. team sweeping the Czechs 3-0. In doubles Kuzuhara was 3-0 during the week with partner Evan Wen (14, Morristown, N.J.).

The U.S. went undefeated in all their matches, in round robin play defeating Peru, Thailand and Russia 3-0, then Australia 3-0 in the quarterfinals and Paraguay 3-0 in the semifinals.

Victor Lilov (14, Raleigh, N.C.) was also on the team that secured a fifth tournament title for the U.S. after wins in 2002-03, 2008 and 2012.

The U.S. girls’ team lost to Russia 3-0 in the semifinals, and in their last match beat Turkey 3-0 to finish third. Last year the U.S. girls won the title while the boys finished fifth.

Former U.S. junior international team members include Jim Courier, Andy Roddick, James Blake, Lindsay Davenport, and Sloane Stephens. Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic also have represented their respective countries in junior international team competition.
 
For more information go to www.itftennis.com/juniors/team-competitions/itf-world-junior-tennis.aspx.