4 July 2011 | Tennis Queensland

Following the historic junior Wimbledon results yesterday, talented Queensland teenager Ben Mitchell, the 2010 Wimbledon Junior finalist, has been announced as the latest addition to the Australian Davis Cup squad.

Mitchell joins Bernard Tomic, Lleyton Hewitt, Chris Guccione and Marinko Matosevic as the team prepares for their vital Asia Oceania Group One second round Davis Cup by BNP Paribas tie against China starting Friday.

“I am just thrilled to be here,” Mitchell said. “I just want to use this opportunity to continue to work really hard on my game.”

Mitchell is not new to the Davis Cup environment having fulfilled the “orange boy” junior training role during Australia’s tie against Belgium in Cairns last year.

“This time it will be a lot more than the traditional “orange boy” role,” Davis Cup Captain Pat Rafter explained.

“We just see this as an opportunity for Ben to get a week of pretty intense training which we hope will help to continue his development as a player.”

Mitchell and fellow Queenslander, Australia’s newest top 100 player Bernard Tomic arrived yesterday to complete the full Australian contingent for the tie. Both were straight on court and into action at the Beijing International Tennis Centre.

China has named a young team headed up by 19-year-old Di Wu (world No.409) who was one of the heroes of their Asia/Oceania first round win over Taiwan when he beat world No.57 Yen-Hsen Lu 9-7 in the fifth set.

The team also includes 20-year-old Ze Zhang (ranked No.380), 23-year-old Mao-Xin Gong (No.370) and 24-year-old doubles specialist Zhe Li (No.469), all under the captaincy of Shao-Xuan Zeng.

The winner of this tie will earn a berth in the World Group Playoff in September.