AITA announces India squad for Junior Davis Cup Finals

New Delhi: The All India Tennis Association (AITA) on Monday announced the team for the Davis Cup Junior Finals, to be held at the Smash Sporting Club in Cairo, Egypt, from November 2 to 8, 2026.

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

It will be the first time the leading national team competition for players aged 16 and under, which is scheduled for 2-8 November at the Smash Sporting Club, is 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.

National teams compete in regional qualifying events in both competitions throughout the season, before the top 16 boys teams and top 16 girls teams contest the Finals.

As host nation, Egypt qualify for the Finals automatically. India joined seven other teams; Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czechia, Egypt, Spain, France, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Serbia, USA and Venezuela.

The USA are the two-time defending champions. Previous winning teams at the Finals have featured some of the game’s biggest names including Rafael Nadal (Spain, 2002), Felix Auger-Aliassime (Canada, 2015), Carlos Alcaraz (Spain, 2018), Joao Fonseca (Brazil, 2022).

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

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