Three Southern California natives, including one now training in Florida, recently competed as a three-man team on an international stage as Tristan Boyer, Govind Nanda and William Grant led the USTA 16-and-under Junior Davis Cup team in qualifying victories recently at the premier junior world team competition in Campeche, Mexico.

The team went undefeated in qualifying, and advanced to the Junior Davis finals, which will be held Sept. 18-23 in Budapest, Hungary.

From l to r: Tristan Boyer, Govind Nanda, William Grant, USTA Coach Eric Nunez and Zibu Ncube.

Boyer, who is traveling for the next two and a half months all over Europe to train on clay, said recently from Italy that the familiarity of the team helped. “It really did help because I grew up with these guys,” said Boyer, from Italy. “Even the 14s team and the girls [Fed Cup] team, we all got along. It felt like a real team event.”

Boyer is from Pasadena while Nanda is from Cerritos and Grant grew up in Santa Barbara, but has been training in Boca Raton, Fla., for the past 18 months.

The trio were coached at the Junior Davis Cup by USTA National Coach Eric Nunez. “I had worked with him before but not in this team format,” said Boyer, who also had her personal SoCal coach Zibu Ncube traveling with him in Mexico. “It was different playing a match with a coach on the court. It totally changes the dynamic on the court.”

Boyer is 16 years old and attends Stanford Online school. He is currently playing ITF Grade II events across Europe and said the main goal is to develop his game on clay.

“It feels like I haven’t played a tournament in so long, but it’s been great so far,” Boyer said.

Boyer is among head company as former U.S. junior international team members have included Jim Courier, Andy Roddick, James Blake, Lindsay Davenport and Sloane Stephens. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have also represented their respective countries in junior international team competition.