Spain and Belarus emerged victorious at the inaugural Junior Davis Cup by BNP Paribas and Junior Fed Cup. The Final, held in France for the first time, was hosted by the Tennis Country Club Barri�re in the beautiful setting of the coastal town of La Baule.

The Spanish boys defeated the USA 3-0 in the Junior Davis Cup by BNP Paribas final, after a week in which they proved to be in a league of their own. Rafael Nadal, Tomeu Salva and Marcel Granollers, along with team captain Joan Llorens, swept aside the competition, taking the title without the loss of a single match. Rafael Nadal was the undisputed star of the show, according to the site. In the group stage the Spaniards eased passed Japan, South Africa and Greece, before accounting for Uruguay in the semi final. The team added the U16 team title to the U14 World Junior Tennis title that they won in 2000 in Czech Republic. After collecting their replica Davis Cup trophy captain Llorens said, "I congratulate the boys on their win. They concentrated well in their matches and played very intelligently".

The USA team of Brendan Evans, Phillip Simmonds, Scott Oudsema and captain Ricardo Acuna picked up the silver medals, after battling hard to reach the final. With USA in undoubtedly the toughest group alongside Argentina, Germany and Mexico, Simmonds and Oudsema were called upon three times to win ties in the deciding doubles match.

Australia and Uruguay were left to fight it out for the third spot. Uruguay was the surprise package of the week after beating the hosts and No.4 seeds, France, on the opening day of the competition. The South American team, obviously feeling at home on clay, was playing for their best-ever finishing position and surprisingly overcame the strong Australian team to snatch the bronze medal in a nail-biting deciding doubles match. The host team, France, fought back after the disappointing opening day to end up in 5th place.

In the Junior Fed Cup Belarus made a dream debut in their first appearance in the finals, taking the title by defeating the previous year�s champions, Czech Republic 3-0. Anastasiya Yakimava, Daria Kustava and Ekaterina Dzehalevich, along with captain Yuri Shcherbakov played outstandingly well all week to capture the title for Belarus. When asked after the final what the victory meant to the team, Shcherbakov explained, "This is a very big success for Belarus. The girls are very proud to represent their country here. It means everything, for me it means everything and together we fought on court for our country".

The Belarussians were unlucky not to be seeded in the draw. In the European qualifying competition they had lost in the first round to a Czech Republic team fielding World Junior No.1 Barbora Strycova, thus preventing them from finishing any higher than 5th place. However, once in the final the girls showed their strength to gain revenge over the Czech team, this time missing Strycova due to her involvement at the US Open.

Despite not dropping a match before the final the Czech Republic had to settle for the silver medal thereby relinquishing the chance of a third consecutive title in the U16 category.

The Russian team claimed third position after defeating China 2-0 in the play off tie. The podium demonstrated the European dominance in this competition with six of the last seven winners all coming from Europe.

The high quality of the tennis was matched by the organisation and enthusiasm of the team in La Baule, led by tournament director Daniel Laurent, who rounded the week off superbly with a spectacular dinner and disco held at the impressive Hermitage hotel overlooking the beach of La Baule.



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