Dust may barely have settled on the Australian Open Junior Championships, but attention now turns to the South American swing which dominates the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors calendar in the coming weeks.

Junior Grand Slams aside, the first of the season’s seven Grade A events will take place in the Brazilian city of Criciuma from 21-27 February, offering sizeable ranking points and the chance of silverware.

It is around this time that the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Rankings begin to take shape, with the players likely to be in the mix for the year-end No. 1 spot making their moves and coming to the attention of interested observers.

Before JA Criciuma, the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors undertakes a South American tour, checking into Lima – a tournament which is already underway— Lambare and Porto Alegre for Grade 1 events.

The crescendo, however, is the Grade A showdown on the clay courts of Criciuma, which has hosted this tournament – the historic Banana Bowl – since 2019 when the competition was switched from Porto Alegre.

Regardless of geography, the tournament has a rich heritage and can boast an array of future Grand Slam winners and headline acts.

Three-time Roland Garros winner Gustavo Kuerten, Andy Roddick, a US Open champion in 2013, and Olympic gold medallist Monica Puig have all topped the tournament’s podium.

“It is a pleasure for us to organise and deliver a JA with the tradition that Banana Bowl carries,” said tournament director Guilherme Gesser.

“Every year, we welcome the best junior players in the world, and we will make sure they enjoy playing a very safe and tough tournament in Brazil.”

More recent winners include Canada’s Leylah Fernandez, who finished as the runner-up to Emma Raducanu at the 2021 US Open final, and last year’s Wimbledon girls’ champion Ane Mintegi del Olmo of Spain.

China’s Juncheng Shang and Oceane Babel of France topped the singles podiums 12 months ago. Not only were these the first Grade A titles of their careers, but the starting point for progressive seasons.

Shang proceeded to star within the professional ranks, winning three ITF World Tennis Tour Men’s tournaments, while he was named an ITF World Champion after finishing the year as the top-ranked boy on the planet.

Babel also gained valuable ITF World Tennis Tour experience last year, although the highlight was possibly her wild card entry to the Roland Garros main draw, where she faced Elina Svitolina in the first round.  

Whether looking from an historic or modern-day perspective, there are plenty inspiring figures for the class of 2022 to look up to and perhaps emulate.