What are Junior Reserved places?
Put simply, Junior Reserved places allow players with a high ITF junior ranking to contest professional events. In many cases, they have helped those players establish themselves at a higher level.
Who qualifies for Junior Reserved places?
A maximum of three Main Draw spots are available at each M15 and W15 ITF World Tennis Tour event for boys and girls ranked within the Top 100 of the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Rankings.
Junior Reserved places are only available to players who cannot otherwise be accepted into the Main Draw based on their ATP, WTA or ITF World Tennis Tour singles ranking.
To be eligible, players must be 14 years of age and feature within the Top 100 of the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Rankings on the entry deadline of the tournament in question.
If those stipulations are met, players will then be selected on ranking. So, those wishing to utilise a Junior Reserved place at a given event will be listed, with the three boys and three girls with the highest ranking given a Main Draw place.
There is no limit to the amount of Junior Reserved places a player can use per season.
It is worth noting that players may carry over their end-of-year ranking for the purposes of entering M15 and W15 events until they turn 19 years of age.
If two players share the same ranking (one with a current ranking and one with a carry-over ranking), the player with the current ranking will be given precedence.
Which players have used Junior Reserved places successfully?
Introduced in 2019 with the launch of the ITF World Tennis Tour, Junior Reserved places have proven enormously beneficial to players as they progress towards higher-level ITF World Tennis Tour events and ATP/WTA tournaments.
In 2024, 223 different players utilised the Junior Reserved positions on offer, using them on a combined 859 occasions. 13 players, from 10 nations, lifted silverware after entering ITF World Tennis Tour events using Junior Reserved places.
Those players were:
Boys:
Maxim Mrva (CZE) (M15 Pardubice), Felix Balshaw (FRA) (M15 Arad), Ignacio Parisca (VEN) (M15 Xativa), Jakub Filip (CZE) (M15 Poprad), Nicolai Budkov Kjaer (NOR) (M15 Antalya), Yaroslav Demin (RUS) (M15 Manacor).
Girls:
Joy De Zeeuw (NED) (W15 Villena & W15 Sharm El Sheikh), Laura Samson (CZE) (W15 Monastir), Kaitlin Quevedo (ESP) (W15 Sabadell), Renata Jamrichova (SVK) (W15 Sharm El Sheikh), Sonja Zhiyenbayeva (KAZ) (W15 Antalya), Alanis Hamilton (USA) (W15 Lakewood, CA), Victoria Milovanova (RUS) (W15 Monastir).
Czechia's Eliska Tichackova has already won two W15 tournaments in 2025 through Junior Reserved places. Japan's Naoya Honda and Elizara Yaneva of Bulgaria, menawhile, have won a M15 and W15 tournament respectively this year through Junior Reserved places.
Previous players to have utilised Junior Reserved positions to win ITF World Tennis Tour tournaments and progress their careers include Mirra Andreeva, Holger Rune, Qinwen Zheng, Sebastian Baez, Jakub Mensik, Clara Tauson and Luca Nardi.