Bloomington, Minn. (October 26, 2010) – Life Time Fitness-Fridley won the 14-and-Under Advanced National Championship October 24 at the 2010 USTA Jr. Team Tennis National Championship in Surprise, Ariz. LTF-Fridley claimed their second Jr. Team Tennis National Championship in the past 6 years (winning also in 2005) and became the fifth team from USTA Northern to win a Jr. Team Tennis National Championship. Grand Forks, N.D., won the last title in 2008.
The tournament opened with a round-robin event in which Fridley, Texas, Mid-Atlantic and New England participated in the same flight. The winner of the flight was based on total-games won from all three matches played. The winner then advanced to the First-Fourth Elimination Bracket to determine the National Champion.
Fridley won its round-robin flight with 102 total games won. Texas was second with 101 total games, followed by Mid-Atlantic (86) and New England 2 (38). Northern opened the tournament by defeating Mid-Atlantic 34-24 and then beating New England 39-12 in the second match.
Northern held a one-game lead over Texas, 73-72, in the total-games-won formula going into the deciding match against its Lone Star State foes. In the match, Texas led Northern 24-21 going into the final mixed doubles match. After winning the first set 4-2 and pulling Northern to within one game, Northern’s Joshua Gearou and Sonya Das were down 3-0 in the second set. Gearou and Das then rallied to win four straight games, including a set tiebreaker, to win the set 4-3 and tie the match 29-29 each. In the total games-won format, Northern finished with 102 games compared to 101 for Texas.
Northern then defeated Middle States in the semifinals 38-23 before beating Southwest 38-16 for the National Championship.
Members of the Life Time team included Jenna Sundstrom, Joshua Gearou, Patricia Zhao, Samuel Gearou, Sonya Das, Summer Brills, Toby Boyer and Zach Adkins. Scott Sundstrom was the coach.
Joshua Gearou was also the recipient of the Sportsmanship Award for the Boys 14 Advanced at the tournament.
USTA Northern, based in Bloomington, Minn., is one of 17 sections that make up the United States Tennis Association and covers Minnesota, North and South Dakota and Northwestern Wisconsin. The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the United States and is a not-for-profit organization with more than 760,000 members.
It owns and operates the US Open and, in 2004, launched the US Open Series which links 11 summer tournaments to the US Open. In addition, it selects the teams for the Davis Cup, Fed Cup and the Olympic and Paralympics Games. It invests 100 percent of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, from the grassroots to the professional levels. For more information on USTA Northern, log on to www.northern.usta.com.
