Preview: 2024 Roland Garros Junior Championships
The cream of the 2024 junior crop – the stars of tomorrow – are arriving in Paris to grab a share of the clay-court limelight as the countdown to the Roland Garros Junior Championships continues.
The second Junior Grand Slam of the season gets underway on Sunday and as well as performing alongside the game’s pros, the world’s top juniors will bid to enhance their reputations, lift silverware and scoop valuable ranking points.
This is also the stage of the season when the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Rankings really begin to take shape, and with the Junior Championships, Wimbledon just around the corner, this period matters.
Looking at the names of those set to be on show at Roland Garros, some leap off the page immediately. Taking the boys’ draw first, Joel Schwaerzler and Nicolai Budkov Kjaer are two players with pedigree, with both hitting important career milestones in 2024.
Until recently, Schwaerzler was the No. 1-ranked boy on the planet despite mainly focusing on professional events this year, and his potential was underlined by victory at the Skopje Challenger last week.
Still only 18, Schwaerzler, who featured in the first of a multi-episode YouTube series being produced by the ITF, will be considered one of the favourites to triumph in the French capital once play begins.
Norway’s Budkov Kjaer is another to have enjoyed a stellar 2024. The 17-year-old has contested five junior events, reaching at least the semi-finals on each occasion, and has also topped the podium at two ITF World Tennis Tour events – at M15 Antalya.
Schwaerzler and Budkov Kjaer are not the only ones with designs on success and they will be joined in Paris by Japan’s Rei Sakamoto, who was installed as the new junior world No. 1 in the boys’ game on Monday.
Sakamoto is the only player in the boys’ draw to have previously won a Junior Grand Slam singles title after being crowned Australian Open boys’ champion in January. Incidentally, he also won J300 Traralgon – the traditional warm-up event to the Aussie Open.
The likes of Romania’s Luca Preda, Federico Cina of Italy, Czechia’s Maxim Mrva and Hayden Jones of Australia will also have eyes on the main prize, while Kaylan Bigun of the United States is a man in form.
Bigun conquered all before him at the most recent J500 event in Milan, so will head into the Roland Garros Junior Championships with a level of confidence and faith in his clay-court game.
As ever, the Grand Slam Player Development Programme/ITF Touring Team will be represented and Kim Jangjun of Korea, Rep. is also in form after reaching the final of J500 Milan, where he was defeated by Bigun.
There is also a stellar cast list in the girls’ draw, led by Slovakia’s Renata Jamrichova – the world’s No. 1-ranked girl and a player with past Junior Grand Slam-winning experience after triumphing at the Australian Open in January.
Left-hander Jamrichova, who will feature in the second edition of the ITF’s Day in the Life YouTube series, has won two ITF World Tennis Tour Women’s events in 2024 – W15 Sharm El-Sheikh and W15 Telde.
The 16-year-old also starred for Slovakia in their 4-0 victory over Slovenia in April's Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Qualifiers, winning her nation’s third match and contributing to their qualification to the 2024 Finals.
She is not alone in showcasing her talent in a professional environment. Czechia’s Laura Samson, who featured for Czechia as they finished runners-up at the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup Juniors by Gainbridge Finals, has also done so.
Samson, who was part of the Czechia team crowned 2022 ITF World Junior Tennis champions, has won three ITF World Tennis Tour Women’s titles – at W15 Monastir, W15 Kranjska Gora and W15 Bol – in 2024.
Australia’s Emerson Jones, meanwhile, will also be heading to Paris in buoyant mood having triumphed at J500 Milan at the weekend. In the process, the 15-year-old became the youngest player in history to win multiple J500 titles.
That said, the girls’ draw is jampacked with talented individuals. The likes of American Tyra Caterina Grant, Hannah Klugman of Great Britain, Spain’s Kaitlin Quevedo and Japanese duo Wakana Sonobe and Ena Koike are just a few with title-winning potential.
As ever, it is impossible to namecheck and reference every player and the champions could quite easily come from outside of these individuals. The only certainty is that a thoroughly exciting Roland Garros Junior Championships awaits.
It is also worth noting that all ranking points won at Roland Garros will count towards qualification for October’s ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals in Chengdu.
The Finals will consist of the top eight boys and girls in the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals Qualification Rankings. The Qualification Rankings can be viewed here.