It is not by how much you win, it is about winning. 

Ivan Ivanov, a 16-year-old Bulgarian, has had a few close matches here at the US Open Junior Championships and has looked a little vulnerable at times.

But the reigning Wimbledon boys' champion keeps finding ways to win, and he is now two matches away from a magnificent double.

Despite being bageled in the second set during his quarter-final showdown here in New York, Ivanov rallied and beat Germany’s Max Schoenhaus, 6-4 0-6 7-6(3). It was a thrilling encounter. 

“I managed to keep my focus and my discipline a bit more; that was the main difference in the match,” Ivanov said after the two-hour-four-minute battle. “I’m very happy to pull it out and have come through.”

Ivanov and Schoenhaus were meeting for the third Junior Grand Slam in a row; Schoenhaus won their Roland Garros clash, while Ivanov had his revenge at Wimbledon as he surged towards the title.

Ivanov is now two wins away from matching the feat of countryman Grigor Dimitrov, who won Wimbledon and the US Open back-to-back in 2008.

He is also bidding to become the first junior player to win the singles titles at Wimbledon and the US Open in the same season since Canada’s Filip Peliwo in 2012.

But anyone who saw the second set would have doubted Ivanov would still be in the draw today. After a tight first set, he was blitzed by Schoenhaus in just 37 minutes to even the match.

“I lost a bit of my mind,” Ivanov said. “He raised his level a lot, he was serving 128, 130mph, it made a difference.”

Ivanov settled down and recovered to lead 4-2 in the third set, only to watch Schoenhaus, an 18-year-old, reel off three straight games to go 5-4 up.

But Ivanov settled back down and they battled into a tiebreak, where some big serves from the Bulgarian gave him a big early edge.

“He’s the toughest opponent I’ve played this year, definitely,” Ivanov said. “He knows how to play against me and I know how to play against him. So this was a very good test.”

While Ivanov struggled, another first-time US Open semi-finalist just kept having the best week of his life.

Kazakhstan’s Zangar Nurlanuly continued his fantastic week here and duly defeated Timofei Derepasko 6-2, 6-4.

“I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it, that I’m in the semis of a Slam,” Nurlanuly said. “I had a little problem in my head during the match, thinking so much that I could be in the semis, maybe the first Kazakh ever. But then I stopped thinking about it.”

With the head of the Kazakhstan Tennis Foundation, Bulat Utemuratov, watching courtside, Nurlanuly got off to good starts in both sets, leading 4-1 and then 5-3, before closing the match out.

When this reporter started to tell Nurlanuly who he might play in the semis, he smiled and screamed “I don’t care who I play!” (he plays Ivanov).

Nurlanuly, whose 12-year-old sister, Rayana, is here with him, said he planned on eating sushi on Thursday night and then get a good night’s sleep.

In the other quarter-finals, No. 5 seed Alexander Vasilev of Bulgaria kept alive the hopes of an all-Bulgarian final by beating the last American in the singles draw, Andrew Johnson, 6-3, 7-5, while unseeded Luis Guto Miguel outlasted Britain’s Oliver Bonding, 7-6 2-6 6-1.

A full list of results from the 2025 US Open Junior Championships can be found here.