ITF

ITFWorld // SPRING 2018 2 7 Qualifying events are well underway for the Regional 12 & Under Team Competition finals later in the year. Across Africa, Asia, Central America and the Caribbean, South America and the Pacific, players aged between 10 and 12 are competing in countries as diverse as Benin and Bolivia for the right to fly their nation's flag in their respective regional finals. The ITF introduced Regional 12 & Under Team Competitions in 2017 as a new high-performance initiative to introduce younger players to team competitions and give them the important experience of representing their countries. The events help the very best girls and boys in their regions to make the jump from the ITF's Tennis10s and Junior Tennis Initiative programmes to the 14-and-under ITF World Junior Tennis team competition, leading on to the 16-and-under Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup by BNP Paribas. As with those older team competitions, the 12-and-under teams consist of three players and one captain, whose presence on court helps with player development. Last year, 97 countries took part in the inaugural Regional 12 & Under Team Competitions, with 532 players competing and 21 nations hosting the regional qualifying and finals. The winning nations were Tunisia's boys and Morocco's girls in Africa, Argentina's boys and Peru's girls in South America, and Cook Islands' boys and East Pacific's girls in the Pacific region. For Asia, Japan took both boys' and girls' honours, as did Mexico in Central America and the Caribbean. New 12-and-under team events Uisung Park was on the 2017 GSDF Touring Team Japan won the boys' title at last year's ITF Asian 12 & Under Team Competition in Astana, Kazakhstan The 2017 Iranian girls team in Astana Burundi's Sada Nahimana in action at the junior US Open Emil Ruusuvuori won the 2017 ITF Junior Masters

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