Criciuma tops the billing in the coming days as top junior players from across the globe bid for silverware and battle to be crowned Banana Bowl champions on the clay courts of Brazil.

In addition to the four Junior Grade Slams, there are seven further Grade A events which this season feature on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors calendar and carry a significant number of ranking points.

The first of those is JA Criciuma, which begins on Monday and will be headlined by several players who made their presence felt at the Australian Open Junior Championships earlier this year.

The season's second Grade A event takes place in April in the German city of Offenbach, with this tournament upgraded from a Grade 1 from this year, before attentions turn to Milan's Trofeo Bonfiglio in May. 

As the campaign unfolds, the Grade A focus moves to Cape Town (South Africa), Osaka (Japan) and Merida (Mexico) before the season-ending Orange Bowl at JA Plantation. 

For now, however, Criciuma takes centre stage and junior world No. 4 Daniel Vallejo is the highest-ranked competitor in the boys’ draw after making history on behalf of his nation Paraguay on the Grand Slam stage in Melbourne.

Vallejo, who was a member of the Grand Slam Player Development Programme/ITF Touring Team in Australia, became the first boy from Paraguay to contest a Junior Grand Slam singles semi-final and the first Paraguayan to do so since 1992.

Unfortunately, the semi-finals were as far as his Australian Open singles adventure went as he succumbed to eventual champion Bruno Kuzuhara of the United States, while there was further agony in the doubles.

Vallejo and his American partner Alex Michelsen progressed to the final only for Kuzuhara and Hong Kong’s Coleman Wong to prevail. Nevertheless, it was a tournament which not only enhanced his reputation but his junior ranking also.  

Incidentally, the 17-year-old lost in the first round at JA Criciuma in 2021, but grew into the season, reaching the final at November's JA Merida before landing his maiden Grade A title at JA Plantation in December.

In short, he has previous experience of winning at this level and could well be one to keep tabs on next week, while the likes of Peruvians Gonzalo Bueno and Ignacio Buse and Argentina’s Lautaro Midon will also fancy their chances

In the girls’ draw, Canada’s Kayla Cross and Victoria Mboko lead the way in terms of ranking, with the duo forming a lethal doubles partnership at the Australian Open Junior Championships.  

As they have done on many previous occasions, Cross and Mboko joined forces to great effect as they advanced to the final of the girls’ doubles before slipping to defeat against Russia’s Diana Shnaider and Clervie Ngounoue of the United States.

Mboko featured at the Junior Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Antalya in October and was highlighted as possessing the necessary talent and potential to be considered ‘one to watch’.

Success in Criciuma would represent her first singles title at Grade A level, having won a J2 event at Tashkent in June last year. Her and Cross did, however, triumph in the doubles at JA Merida in November.

Should Cross or Mboko top the Banana Bowl singles podium, they would become the first Canadian to do so since Leylah Fernandez – a player who requires very few introductions these days – in 2018.

Fernandez has since made considerable strides and competed in last year’s US Open women’s singles final and now finds herself ranked No. 19 in the world. For those competing in Criciuma, it goes to show the rate of progress which junior players can make. 

There are certainly other pretenders to the girls’ throne, however. Qavia Lopez of the United States, Hungary’s Luca Udvardy and Chelsea Fontenel of Switzerland are among the higher-ranked players with the ability to thrive.

In terms of the tournament itself, the Banana Bowl – named as a tropical version of the prestigious Orange Bowl tournament held in the United States – has a rich and somewhat nomadic history.

Criciuma has been its home since 2019 following a move from Porto Alegre, although regardless of geography, the tournament can boast an array of future Grand Slam winners and headline acts.

Those to have conquered all before them at the Banana Bowl include John McEnroe, Helena Sukova, Thomas Muster, Gustavo Kuerten, Andy Roddick, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Olympic gold medallist Monica Puig.  

The most recent winners, meanwhile, were China’s Juncheng Shang and Oceane Babel of France in March 2021. Not only were these the first Grade A titles of their respective careers, but the starting point for progressive seasons.

Shang proceeded to star within the professional ranks, winning three ITF World Tennis Tour Men’s tournaments, while he was named an ITF World Champion after finishing the year as the top-ranked boy on the planet.

Babel also gained valuable ITF World Tennis Tour experience last year, although the highlight was possibly her wild card entry to the Roland Garros main draw, where she faced Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in the first round.  

Whether looking from an historic or modern-day perspective, it is clear there are plenty of inspiring figures who have starred on the Banana Bowl stage previously for the class of 2022 to look up to and emulate.

After all, it is around this time that the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Rankings begin to take shape, with the players likely to be in the mix for the year-end No. 1 spot making their moves and coming to the attention of interested observers. It’s most definitely all to play for.