Jesse Levine - Junior Tennis Career

Junior Tennis Career

In 2001 he stunned Donald Young in the final of the U.S. Clay Court 14 Nationals at the Jimmy Evert Tennis Center in Fort Lauderdale. Levine had won the first set, lost the second, and found himself trailing 0–5 with Young serving for match point at 40–15. They were already bringing in the table for the trophy presentation, when Levine ran off an astonishing 23 consecutive points. He won 7–5 in the third.

In 2003 he won the USTA boys 16s doubles championship with partner Jean Yves Aubone, and the Eddie Herr International Boys under-16s singles title. He finished the year ranked 11th in the USTA boys' 16 division. In 2004 he won the Eddie Herr International Boys 18s doubles championship with Michael Shabaz, an Iranian-born Assyrian-American.

At the 2005 USTA Junior Nationals, where he lost in the singles semifinals and doubles finals, both 7–6 in the third set, he was judged to have the best service return. He won the 2005 Wimbledon boys' doubles championship along with Michael Shabaz over Samuel Groth of Australia and Andrew Kennaugh of Great Britain, 6–4, 6–1. "If you believe in yourself anything can happen", said Levine. He also reached the quarterfinals of the Junior Wimbledon boys' singles tournament that year. Levine was selected to go to the 2005 Maccabiah Games just after winning the doubles, but decided against it as he was too tired. He finished 2005 ranked 23rd in the USTA national junior rankings.

He was the runner-up at the 2006 U.S. Junior National Championship to World No. 1 Junior Donald Young, forfeiting in the finals due to food poisoning. He was voted as having the best backhand.

His highest International Tennis Federation World Junior Ranking was No. 14 (with a 61-27 singles win/loss record and a 61-22 doubles win/loss record).

Junior Slam results – Singles:

Australian Open: 1R (2005)
French Open: 3R (2005)
Wimbledon: QF (2005)
US Open: 2R (2005)

He attended Boca Prep International School (which Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish had also attended) on a soccer scholarship for 1½ years (playing with Jozy Altidore, a U.S. national team member in 2008 signed a $10 million deal with Villarreal of La Liga), before leaving Boca Prep in the middle of 10th grade because the new headmaster wasn't as flexible with his travel schedule, and switching to the University of Miami Online High School, where he was class of 2007. The online school offered an academic program for athletes who were too busy to attend traditional bricks-and-mortar high schools. Levine did most of his junior training at the Chris Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, which is adjacent to Boca Prep (where he received the senior male sportsmanship award from Chris Evert and was named the academy's Male Player of the Year by his peers), and the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida (for two years), and then decided that at least a year or two of college would be a better choice than turning professional at that point.