Osaka Mayor's Cup: key learnings from the latest junior Grade A event

The season’s latest Grade A event, the Osaka Mayor’s Cup, concluded on Sunday with Japan’s Sara Saito and Gerard Campana Lee of Korea, Republic crowned girls’ and boys’ singles champions respectively. Saito also won the girls' doubles alongside Yu-Yun Li of Chinese Taipei. 

Grade A tournaments are the highest classification of competition on the junior calendar and, as such, offer sizeable rewards for the victors and those who go deep in their draws.

Excluding Junior Grand Slams which also carry Grade A status, JA Osaka was the fifth of seven Grade A events on the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior calendar this year. Here are some key learnings and interesting facts about the latest Grade A champions.

• Victory for top seed Saito in the girls’ draw means a home favourite has now topped the podium at the Osaka Mayor’s Cup in five out of the last six years the competition has been staged, dating back to 2016. The only occasion during that period when a Japanese player has failed to lift silverware came in 2019 when Harold Mayot and Diane Parry ensured a French whitewash.
  
  
• Victories for Korean players at JA Osaka have been far rarer, and while Chung Yun-seong conquered all before her in the girls’ draw in 2014, Campana Lee became the first Korean boy to seal the Osaka Mayor’s Cup since Jun Woong-sun a decade earlier in 2004.
  
  
• Saito and Campana Lee have both enjoyed success this season but tasting victory at JA Osaka is the biggest triumph and the most prestigious title of their respective careers. Both had already won J1 tournaments in 2022, so a Grade A was the next milestone to pass.
  
  
• Both players are in exceptionally good company. The likes of Casper Ruud, Taylor Fritz, Katerina Siniakova, Kristina Mladenovic, Nick Kyrgios, Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka, Marin Cilic, Amelie Mauresmo and Sebastien Grosjean are just some of the names to have clinched singles glory in Osaka, reflecting the significance of tournaments such as this in a player’s development.
  
  
• Saito has now won 16 of the last 18 junior matches she has contested across four (hard court) tournaments, while she warmed up for Osaka Mayor’s Cup success by reaching the semi-finals on the grass of W25 Makinohara.
  
  
• Both players are progressing along the ITF player pathway with Campana Lee gaining further professional exposure this season. The 18-year-old made his ITF World Tennis Tour Men’s debut at M25 Reus in April 2021 but has just one main draw match-win to his name so far.
  
  
• Talking of the player pathway, Saito will represent Japan at the 2022 Junior Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Antalya, Turkey in November. At last year's Finals, the 16-year-old notched some notable victories as Japan reached the final where they succumbed to Czech Republic.