The Australian Junior Championships returns in 2023, with another crop of talented youngsters battling it out to become junior Grand Slam champions.
Last year's event saw Bruno Kuzuhara become the sixth American boy to win at the Australian Open - and first since 2018 - after defeating Czech Jakub Mensik in the title match, while Petra Marcinko became the fourth Croatian player to top the Australian Open girls’ podium (after Mirjana Lucic, Jelena Kostanic and Ana Konjuh) with victory over Belgian Sofia Costoulas.
HISTORY
The Junior Australian Open is the oldest of the Grand Slam junior draws having established a boys' competition in 1922. At this stage it wasn't designated as one of the majors and only reached this status two years later in 1924. A girls' draw was further added in 1930. The competition became known as the Australian Championships in 1927 and then finally the Australian Open in 1969.
The early years of the junior competition were dominated by the host nation with the first non-Australian winner in either draw occurring in 1954 when Billy Knight from Great Britain took the boys' title.
The original venue was the Warehouseman’s Cricket Ground in Melbourne. The tournament went on to be held in numerous cities around Australia and New Zealand before it permanently settled in Melbourne in 1972, first at Kooyong LTC and then, from 1988, at the purpose built Flinders Park, now known as Melbourne Park, where it remains today.
Past Winners
A number of Australia's greatest players have won the Junior Australian Open including Ken Rosewall (1950, 1952), while Pat Cash was a runner-up in 1981 and Todd Woodbridge made the final in 1987 and 1989 only to lose out at the last hurdle. Victoria Azarenka is the latest player to have made the step from winning the event at the junior level in 2005, before storming the women's draw in 2012 to take her maiden Grand Slam title, before defending it in 2013.