Home favourite Samir Banerjee and Ane Mintegi Del Olmo of Spain will bid to make it back-to-back Junior Grand Slam titles when the US Open Junior Tennis Championships get underway on Monday.

The duo shot to prominence amid the splendour of Wimbledon in July as they made a mockery of their unseeded status to conquer all before them and end proceedings clutching silverware.

Now the focus switches to the hard courts of Flushing Meadows and the final Junior Grand Slam of 2021 – and the first to be held in New York since 2019 following the postponement of last year’s event due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

All eyes will be on Banerjee and Mintegi Del Olmo to see if they can repeat their Wimbledon heroics and claim the first Wimbledon-US Open junior double since Canada’s Filip Peliwo triumphed twice in quick succession back in 2012.

Banerjee is the only competitor within the boys’ draw to have the status of a Junior Grand Slam champion as he begins his quest to become the first junior since Tseng Chun Hsin to claim consecutive crowns. Tseng achieved the feat in 2018 as he topped the podium at Roland Garros before doing likewise at Wimbledon.

Mintegi Del Olmo, however, will not be afforded the distinction of being the sole Junior Grand Slam winner in the girls’ draw as she will have world No. 1 Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva, who prevailed at the 2020 Australian Open, for company.

Idiazabal-born Mintegi Del Olmo and Jimenez Kasintseva are close friends, with the latter in the former’s box as she defeated Germany’s Nastasja Mariana Schunk to claim victory in the SW19 girls’ final.

It has been quite the whirlwind for Mintegi Del Olmo since, with the 17-year-old meeting King Felipe VI of Spain, as her exploits at Wimbledon were celebrated in considerable style in her homeland.

Banerjee, meanwhile, is one of three Americans to be ranked within the top 10 of the boys’ standings, with trophy-chasing pair Bruno Kuzuhara and Wimbledon finalist Victor Lilov also eyeing US Open silverware.

As such, the United States will be very hopeful of witnessing a first American boys’ champion on home turf since Taylor Fritz in 2015, incidentally a year which also saw Tommy Paul and Reilly Opelka taste Junior Grand Slam glory. 

The American triumvirate of Banerjee, Kuzuhara and Lilov will be joined in the hunt for honours by China’s Juncheng Shang, the top-ranked boy on the planet, as he goes in search of a maiden Junior Grand Slam title.

Talented Spaniard Daniel Rincon, Wimbledon quarter-finalist Jack Pinnington Jones of Great Britain and Ukraine’s Viacheslav Bielinskyi also figure in the top 10 of the boys’ rankings and are primed for action in New York.

In the girls’ draw, as well as Jimenez Kasintseva being in the mix for the big prize, Alexandra Eala of the Philippines, who is ranked No. 2 in the world rankings, will be determined to add a Junior Grand Slam crown to her career CV.

Eala, who claimed the maiden professional title of her career in January, has failed to hit her straps during the Junior Grand Slams this season, with a second-round finish at Wimbledon her best performance.

But buoyed by a second Grade A triumph, this time in Milan, Eala, who is still only 16 years old, will no doubt have designs on displaying the talent and form which have seen her attain innumerable admirers.

Russia’s Diana Shnaider, Czech Linda Fruhvirtova, Kristina Dmitruk of Belarus and American Robin Montgomery are the other top 10 girls set for US Open duty.

Whether or not it proves to be Montgomery, whoever emerges as he leading United States contender, that individual will be bidding to become the first Junior Grand Slam girls’ champion since Coco Gauff at Roland Garros in 2018. The last American girl to succeed at the US Open, meanwhile, was Amanda Anisimova four years ago.

But, as ever, the road to Junior Grand Slam glory is long and winding, with rankings and seedings not necessarily the clearest guide as to who will eventually triumph. This year’s events at Roland Garros and Wimbledon testify to that.

The big question is will the US Open Junior Tennis Championships be any different? Only time will tell.

Further information on the US Open Junior Tennis Championships, including the full acceptance list for both the boys' and girls' draws, is available here.