Preview: 2023 US Open Junior Championships
So here we are. The fourth and final Grand Slam of the 2023 season is underway at the US Open and from Sunday the junior tennis event, featuring the stars of tomorrow, shares the spotlight.
For some of the players on show, the US Open Junior Championships present the last opportunity for a Grand Slam trophy this season, while for others it is the final chance of their career to claim a Junior Grand Slam title.
Those who turned 18 this year will no longer be eligible to play junior tennis in 2024 and it will be fascinating to observe their careers as they progress along the player pathway.
This applies to four of the top five-ranked boys on the planet – Yaroslav Demin, Rodrigo Pacheco, Cooper Williams and Juan Carlos Prado Angelo – who will all compete for honours at Flushing Meadows.
Three of those four have experience of claiming silverware at Junior Grand Slams this season, with Williams claiming doubles glory at the Australian Open in January and Demin and Pacheco teaming up to great effect at Roland Garros in June.
It is singles glory they crave now, however, especially with the battle to finish the season as the year-end junior world No. 1 hotting up, although there is plenty of mileage in that particular race.
There are still three J500 events, which provide premier playing opportunities for players on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors, and indeed the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals in Chengdu to come.
Speaking of which, all rankings points accrued at the US Open will count towards qualification for the 2023 ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals, which will take place at the Sichuan International Tennis Center from 16-22 October.
The Junior Finals showcase the best junior players on the ITF World Tennis Tour from the previous 12 months and will consist of the top eight boys and girls in the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals Qualification Rankings.
The quest to be a Junior Grand Slam singles champion is something Henry Searle knows all about, having conquered all before him at Wimbledon in July – the first British boy to do so since 1962.
The left-hander will be eager to replicate such form in foreign climes – and indeed on a hard court – and be the first boy since Tseng Chun-Hsin of Chinese Taipei in 2018 to win back-to-back Junior Grand Slams.
The competition will be as stiff as ever, and Demin – the world's top-ranked boy at the present time – will be eager to avenge his defeat to Searle in that Wimbledon final.
Mexico’s Pacheco and Prado Angelo of Bolivia have also held the No. 1 spot at times this season, while what a story it would be should United States home favourite Williams top the podium in New York – the city of his birth.
The talent pool does not stop there and the likes of Brazil’s Joao Fonseca, Iliyan Radulov of Bulgaria, American Darwin Blanch and China’s Yi Zhou are sure to be eyeing silverware.
There is a different dynamic within the girls’ draw, with the majority of the higher-ranked players having opportunities to return to the Junior Grand Slam stage next season. However, that will not lessen their desire for success here and now.
Slovakia’s Renata Jamrichova is ranked No. 3 in the ITF World Tennis Tour girls’ rankings behind Alina Korneeva and Clervie Ngounoue of the United States and is the highest-ranked player in the girls’ draw.
Still only 16, Jamrichova reached the semi-finals at the Junior Championships, Wimbledon last month and is bidding to record her maiden main draw match-win at the US Open Junior Championships having lost in the first round in 2022.
Peru’s Lucciana Perez Alarcon, who earlier this year received financial support through the Grand Slam Player Development Programme, is making a big name for herself and will have designs on a deep run in New York.
The 18-year-old became the first Peruvian girl to reach a Junior Grand Slam final at Roland Garros and is one of the players for whom the US Open is their last chance for Junior Grand Slam glory.
Also in the mix for honours is a quartet of highly-ranked Japanese players in the form of Sara Saito, Sayaka Ishii, Mayu Crossley and Ena Koike. Incidentally, the last Japanese girl to top the podium at a Junior Grand Slam was Kazuko Sawamatsu in 1969.
Home favourites Kaitlin Quevedo and Iva Jovic – the latter was a member of the victorious USA team at the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup Juniors Finals – will bid to triumph on home soil – in the process becoming the 18th American girls’ champion at the US Open.
As with Wimbledon, Czechia’s Nikola Bartunkova, who is ranked No. 321 in the WTA Rankings after mostly concentrating on professional events in 2023, is also on the entry list.
In short, the US Open Junior Championships promise to be enthralling and intriguing in equal measure. Time to hold onto your hats.