Whatever a player's motivation – a late-season rankings surge, a drive for silverware or a simple thirst for action – all eyes will soon be fixed on the Mexican city of Merida and the penultimate junior Grade A event of the season.

Grade As are the highest classification of competition on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors calendar and, excluding Junior Grand Slams, Merida is the sixth of seven such tournaments – after Criciuma (BRA), Offenbach (GER), Milan (ITA), Pretoria (RSA) and Osaka (JPN) – in 2022.

While not at the level of Junior Grand Slams, the ranking points on offer at Merida and the like are sizeable, while the prestige of winning a Grade A is significant. Topping a Grade A podium also suggests that an aspiring player’s career trajectory is heading in a positive direction.

Take the most-recent winners of JA Merida, for instance. Brenda Fruhvirtova of Czech Republic was the 2021 girls’ champion and in the ensuing 12 months has won a whopping eight ITF World Tennis Tour events and risen to No. 133 in the WTA Rankings.

Croatia’s Mili Poljicak, the 2021 boys’ champion, has not scaled such lofty heights, but did conquer all before him at the Junior Championships, Wimbledon in July, while he has also gained invaluable experience at professional events. 

That is the motivation for the modern-day vintage as the climax of the 2022 season draws ever nearer and the hopes, aims and aspirations for a new campaign, which will be here in no time at all, begin to take shape.

Heading the girls’ field is Clervie Ngounoue of the United States, who is fresh from spearheading her nation’s triumph at the Billie Jean King Cup Juniors by BNP Paribas Finals in Antalya.

The 16-year-old featured in All on the Line: Team USA – an ITF-produced behind-the-scenes video which followed Team USA at the Finals, showcasing rarely seen footage of aspiring players representing their nations at an international team competition.

Ngounoue, who is originally from Washington, D.C., is yet to lift silverware at a Grade A but will certainly be eyeing that opportunity when play gets underway on the clay courts of Merida on Monday 21 November.

Someone who does know what it takes to win a Grade A, meanwhile, is junior world No. 7 Gerard Campana Lee of Korea, Rep. Campana Lee was consistency personified as he dispatched all wound-be challengers to win last month’s boys' title at JA Osaka.

The 18-year-old is in blistering form and is currently on a 17-match winning streak having followed his triumph at Osaka with further titles at J2 Chuncheon and JB1 Osan – dropping just one set in the process.

Ngounoue and Campana Lee are certainly not the only title contenders heading to Merida, but they are two protagonists to keep a close eye on when the action starts.