Nothing offers a glimpse into the future of the sport quite like the US Open Junior Tennis Championships, which kicks off Monday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Before they became tennis superstars and Grand Slam champions, Jennifer Capriati, Lindsay Davenport, Andy Roddick, Marion Bartoli, Andy Murray and Victoria Azarenka all captured the junior title in New York.
Which players in the junior draw today will contest classic matches as pros under the lights in Flushing Meadows a couple years from now? Below, find some of the most intriguing names to watch.
Junior draws: Boys' Singles | Girls' Singles | Boys' Doubles | Girls' Doubles
Boys’ Singles
Junior world No. 1 Juncheng Shang is the top seed for the third consecutive major. The Chinese player is looking to claim his first junior Grand Slam title after falling in the quarterfinals at the French Open and the semifinals at Wimbledon earlier this year.
Right behind him is No. 2 seed and 2021 junior Wimbledon boys’ champion Samir Banerjee. The 17-year-old from Basking Ridge, N.J., is the first American junior boys’ Grand Slam champion since Sebastian Korda lifted the trophy at the 2018 Australian Open. In New York, Banerjee will try to become the first junior boy to win two majors in a single season since Tseng Chun-hsin won both the French Open and Wimbledon in 2018, and the first to hold both Wimbledon and US Open titles since Canadian Filip Peliwo completed the summer Slam sweep in 2012. And how’s this for a contest:
Receiving a bye into the second round, Banerjee could face Leo Borg, son of 1972 Wimbledon boys’ champion Bjorn Borg—the all-time great—in his first match of the tournament.
Other top Americans in the boys’ draw include No. 16 seed Alexander Bernard, No. 13 seed Dali Blanch, No. 4 seed Bruno Kuzuhara and No. 6 seed Victor Lilov, whom Banerjee defeated in the Wimbledon final. The pair could potentially hit the court for a rematch in the semifinals of the tournament.
Girls’ Singles
Spain’s Ane Mintegi Del Olmo, the No. 4 seed, is vying to become the first junior girl to claim both Wimbledon and US Open titles in the same season since Kirsten Flipkens achieved the feat almost 20 years ago in 2003. She’ll have strong competition from top seed Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva, who won the 2020 Australian Open and just reached the final of a pro-level event as a 16-year-old qualifier this past August. The lefty from Andorra has been in the mix at every junior Grand Slam tournament this year, reaching the French Open quarterfinals and the Wimbledon semifinals.
Another name to watch: No. 5 seed Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic. This past April, the then-15-year-old stunned world No. 59 Alizé Cornet en route to the quarterfinals of the 2021 MUSC Health Women's Open in Charleston. Fruhvirtová also reached the junior Wimbledon semifinals, where she was defeated by Mintegi del Olmo; the pair could face each other again in the quarterfinals at the US Open.
Top Americans hoping to score strong results at their home Slam include No. 13 seed Elvina Kalieva, No. 10 seed Madison Sieg, No. 7 seed Robin Montgomery and No. 16 seed Ashlyn Krueger. Montgomery and Krueger recently made waves when they paired up to take out No. 13 team Asia Muhammad and Jessica Pegula in the first round of the US Open women’s doubles tournament.
Montgomery previously reached the quarterfinals of the 2020 junior Australian Open (where she lost in three sets to Kasintseva), and won her first pro-level tournament in Las Vegas the following March.
Krueger, meanwhile, captured the Girls’ 18s National Championships this past August, and competed in the women's event as a wild card. She is also the first person to win the Orange Bowl International Junior Championships twice... since 2019 US Open women's singles champion, Bianca Andreescu.
