A trio of boys and girls from Hong Kong will travel to Shepparton, Australia, to contest this year's Junior Davis Cup & Junior Fed Cup by BNP Paribas Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying. The top-4 place getters shall qualify for the World Finals in San Luis Potosi, Mexico later in September.

This year, play will be contested from April 15-20 on natural turf at the Shepparton Lawn Tennis Club, as well as the Tatura Lawn Tennis Club.

Tatura is a suburb of the city of Shepparton, which, in turn, is located approximately 180 km North-East of Melbourne.

World No. 318 Justin To will lead a Boys' team featuring James Kong (ITF 510) and Vincent Yau (ITF 987), but missing Kelvin Lam (ITF 702) who is unfortunately sidelined with an injured wrist.

The girls' team will be spearheaded by 13-year-old world No. 769, Katherine Ip, who took first place just recently at the ITF 14U Asian Junior Championships – Group 1 in Jakarta a fortnight ago.

Leung Lok Sze, who played in last year's JFC qualifying with Katherine Ip, and 2008 World Junior Tennis team member, Lucy Tang, will also represent the territory in the upcoming week's qualies Down Under.

Competing Nations:

Junior Davis Cup
Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Myanmar

Junior Fed Cup
Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Malaysia, Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka

The captain of the boys' contingent is Alistair Todd, while Eric Chung will captain the girls' team for the second year running.

Last year, the Hong Kong JDC team of Lui Shing Fung, Kelvin Lam, and Chau Kwan Lam finished in 12th place behind top-4 qualifiers India, Japan, Australia, and Chinese Taipei.

The territory's Boys' 16U team of Dino Dell'Orto, Lam Wing Lun, and Ryan Ho concluded its outing at the 2007 Junior Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Asia/Oceania Qualifying in Bangkok by defeating Indonesia, 2-1, to claim 11th place overall.

In 2006, an injury stricken Hong Kong team of Wong Yat Sing, Darren Ng, and Ryan Cheung went down 2-1 against the United Arab Emirates in their final positional playoff game to finish in 14th place overall, while the trio of Ambrose Wong, Ko Ka Chun, and Ryan Cheung placed 17th in Manila in 2005.

In 2004, Ocean Ng, Gilbert Wong, and Ambrose Wong came home in 13th place in Sri Lanka under the captaincy of Jason Sankey, while Martin Sayer, Michael Lai, and Ronald Chow were the same trio that competed in the Regionals in both 2002 and 2003 where they beat Iran and Uzbekistan to claim 15th and 7th respectively.

The only team from Hong Kong to qualify for the Junior Davis Cup World Finals occurred in 2001, when the event was still known as the NEC World Youth Cup. That year, a Jack Hui-led team comprising Brian Hung and Christian Frick was seeded first for the Asia/Oceania Zone Qualifying in Jakarta where they beat Japan en route to placing second behind number two seeds Australia.

At the 2008 Junior Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Qualifying in Bangkok, the Hong Kong trio of Katherine Ip, Lorraine Cheung, and Leung Lok Sze defeated Singapore 3-0 in the final playoff game to finish in 13th place overall.

In 2007, the team of Samantha Chao, Sher Chun Wing, and Sher Pui Wing finished 10th overall after losing to Chinese Taipei 2-1 in the final playoff game.

In 2006, with Jessica Yang and Geraldine Leong at Nos. 1 and 2 singles, Hong Kong beat second-seeded Uzbekistan en route to a 4th place finish at the Regionals in Bangkok to qualify for the World Finals that year.

See related story: HK places fourth overall at Jr Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Qualifying (14 May 2006)

Prior to that, the 2005 team that featured a Zhang Ling-Venise Chan one-two was the only one to reach the World Finals since the inception of the event in 1985. That particular contingent was to claim 11th overall after defeating 5th-seeded Canada in the final positional playoff match in the finals held in Barcelona.

See related story: HK beats Canada to place 11th overall in first-ever Jr Fed Cup Finals appearance (3 Oct 2005)

Past Junior Davis Cup winners    Past Junior Fed Cup winners

Meanwhile, Tennis Australia recently announced that two-time US Open champion, Pat Rafter, and former WTA No. 8 Alicia Molik, will captain the Aussie JDC and JFC teams in the Asia/Oceania Qualifying next week in Shepparton.

See: Alicia Molik and Pat Rafter to captain Australian Junior Teams (itftennis.com, 2 Apr 2009)

Incidentally, the inaugural Junior Davis Cup in 1985 was won by an Australian team that featured former Hong Kong resident Shane Barr at the one spot.  After Richard Fromberg had lost the opening singles, Shane Barr then produced a match-saving win against John Falbo, before teaming up with Jason Stoltenberg to come from a set down to beat Falbo and Francisco Montana in the deciding doubles, 4-6, 7-6, 7-5.