Preview: 2024 US Open Junior Championships
The fourth and final Grand Slam of the 2024 season is underway at the US Open and from Sunday the junior tennis event, featuring the stars of tomorrow, shares the spotlight.
For some players, the 2024 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 have turned 18 this year will no longer be eligible to play junior tennis in 2025, while others may simply choose to prioritise professional events. Either way, it will be fascinating to observe their careers as they progress along the player pathway.
Focusing on the here and now, victory at a Grand Slam, or indeed a run to the latter stages, will provide a significant boost – in terms of rankings points – in the race to finish the season as the year-end No. 1.
There are still three J500 tournaments to come this year so there is plenty of mileage left in those particular races, although 9 September is the ranking cut-off for the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals in Chengdu.
The ITF Junior Finals, which will take place from 14-20 October, are the junior equivalent of the ATP and WTA Finals and will see eight of the best boys and girls do battle for silverware and ranking points.
The current top eight players in the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals Qualification Rankings can be viewed here – but this could all change depending on results in New York.
Turning to the players set to be on show at the US Open Junior Championships, the boys’ draw will feature the three Junior Grand Slam singles champions from this season in Nicolai Budkov Kjaer, Kaylan Bigun and Rei Sakamoto.
Norway’s Budkov Kjaer, who is currently top-ranked boy on the planet, conquered all before him at Wimbledon in July, while Bigun of the United States triumphed at Roland Garros and Japan’s Rei Sakamoto at the Australian Open.
The talent pool does not stop there, and the likes of Mees Rottgering of Netherlands, Czechia’s Maxim Mrva, Luca Preda of Romania, Hayden Jones of Australia and Poland’s Tomasz Berkieta will all fancy their chances of lifting silverware.
There is a different vibe in the girls’ draw with neither of this year’s Grand Slam singles winners – Slovakia’s Renata Jamrichova, who won the Australian Open and Wimbledon, and Czechia’s Tereza Valentova – on the entry list.
This means a new Grand Slam singles champion will be crowned and the likes of Australia’s Emerson Jones, three-time Junior Grand Slam doubles champion Tyra Caterina Grant and Serbia’s Teodora Kostovic are likely to be in the mix.
Belgium’s Jeline Vandromme, Hannah Klugman of Great Britain and Japan’s Wakana Sonobe are also likely to be among those eyeing silverware after enjoying productive seasons.
As ever, however, past successes and credentials on paper count for very little when the action starts for real. A Grand Slam always serves up intriguing storylines and twists and turns at every juncture.
Sometimes it is best to simply go with the flow, safe in the knowledge that the US Open very rarely fails to deliver.