The United States has a new Junior Grand Slam champion after Liv Hovde joined the illustrious list of past American winners with victory over Hungary’s Luca Udvardy in the Junior Championships, Wimbledon girls’ singles final.

Top seed Hovde, who is ranked No. 4 in the junior world rankings, prevailed 6-3 6-4 on Court No. 1, ensuring an American success story here for the second year running following Samir Banerjee’s triumph 12 months ago.

Coco Gauff, Amanda Anisimova, Sebastian Korda, Taylor Fritz, Reilly Opelka and Tommy Paul have all won Junior Grand Slams in recent years and now Hovde can add her name to that group of luminaries.

“I am so happy to win a Junior Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, this means the world to me,” said Hovde. “So many Americans have won Junior Grand Slam titles and gone on to do some wonderful things in tennis.

“To follow in their footsteps at junior level is amazing – I can’t quite believe it actually. It makes me really excited for the future. This is a great step, although I still have a little bit to go to get to the big stage. I cannot wait to see what the future brings.”

This is the continuation of a hugely productive period for the 16-year-old, who also topped the podium at J1 Roehampton – the traditional warm-up event for Wimbledon – in the week prior to the Junior Championships.

Hovde’s triumph also continued the trend of Roehampton champions proceeding to taste success at Wimbledon. Seven of the last 10 girls to win at Roehampton have now conquered all before them at SW19 also.

Given the likes of Belinda Bencic, Jelena Ostapenko and Gauff have all followed this path in the not too distant past, Hovde is keeping some exalted company, as indeed she did moments after her victory today.  

“I bumped into Novak Djokovic after my match, we had a conversation and he was really nice,” added Hovde. “He congratulated me on my title win and we took a photo together. He also asked how I was feeling after winning, it was really cool.”

With every winner, sadly there has to be a loser and on this occasion that was Udvardy, whose only previous appearance at a Grand Slam came at the Roland Garros Junior Championships last month when she bowed out in the second round.

The 16-year-old was not only magnanimous in defeat, but also keen to take the significant number of positives from a Wimbledon debut which could well act as a sizeable springboard for the future.

“I wanted to win the tournament, but I am still happy about the week I have had and hopefully I can come back stronger next year,” Udvardy told itftennis.com.

“To play a Junior Grand Slam final was a great experience but I will now work even harder to make sure I can do well in pro tennis.

"I have had some really happy moments this week and it was great to be able to take some pictures with the big stars, and the famous strawberries and cream were a really nice thing. I have had some really happy moments.”