USTA News

TUCSON – USTA New England’s recent push to increase participation in doubles events has been a resounding success across the section.

Now, that initiative and its success have gone national.

New England junior players turned plenty of heads at the USTA Winter National Championships and two players returned home with Gold Balls and as doubles national champions.

Winchester, Mass. resident Nicole Frenkel struck national gold in the Girls 12 division and Fairfield, Connecticut’s Nolan Paige accomplished the feat in the Boys 16.

In addition, the all-Massachusetts team of Cameron Ghorbani (Lexington) and Mesa Mei (Cambridge) finished fourth in Boys 18 doubles.

Frenkel, currently the top-ranked singles player in New England in her age group, teamed with Alexandra Letz of Scottsdale, Ariz. The pair breezed through the 64-team field at the Reffkin Tennis Center in Tucson and defeated McKenna Root of Michigan and Karin Traxler (Texas), 6-2, 6-2, in the championship match.

"We weren’t too nervous before the match and at beginning of the match, until we were up, 4-2, in the first set when we realized that our opponents came back from the same score - being down, 4-2, and, 3-0, in their previous matches," Frenkel said. "When we finally won the first set, 6-2, we realized there was nothing to be nervous about as long as we played our game."

Frenkel and Letz won the second and deciding set and the celebration began.

"At the end of the tournament we were both relieved and happy," Frenkel said. "Everyone congratulated us at the end and told us how solid we played and didn’t give our opponents any chances, and they also told us how good we communicated as if we were playing doubles together for a long time. When we received the gold balls, the only thing I was curious about was if the ball was real gold."

Paige teamed with Chase Curry of Wichita Falls, Texas to win the doubles championship in Scottsdale. The duo stopped Virginians Edwin Zhang and Max Schnur, 6-2, 6-2, in the final.

Paige’s remarkable performance on the national stage also included a bronze ball in singles competition.

In 2006, 250 doubles matches were played by juniors in New England. With an increased focus on doubles participation that included an expansion of one-day doubles events at junior tournaments, 2,280 doubles matches were played in 2009.

Several New England players also had notable performances in national doubles events in 2009 including:

USTA National Opens –Level 2