Draw made for 2023 US Open Junior Championships
The final Junior Grand Slam of the calendar year is finally here and, as usual, there are plenty of storylines to keep an eye on now the draw for the 2023 U.S. Open Junior Championships, whch begin on Sunday, has been released.
Can one of the boys who have been knocking on the door of winning a Slam in 2023 finally break through and join the gilded club? With the girls' field wide open, will one of the highly-seeded Japanese players come out on top? Or will we see history made from a country that has had little success in the Junior Grand Slams, as we did last year?
On the boys' side, the top line belongs to Yaroslav Demin, who won the Roland Garros doubles title and reached the final at Wimbledon, losing to Great Britain’s Henry Searle. Demin starts with another British player, Oliver Bonding, in the first round.
Rodrigo Pacheco, the 18-year-old lefty from Mexico, reached the world No.1 ranking this year and is looking to improve on his Slam results from 2023, his best being a third-round showing at Wimbledon. Mendez opens against Jangjun Kim of Korea.
And the aforementioned Searle, the only Slam champion in either boys' or girls' field, is the No.4 seed at Flushing Meadows and drew India’s Yuvan Nandal in the opening round.
Some of the more intriguing names in the boys' draw belong to Americans who are not seeded highly, but have shown their bona fides very well earlier in the Slam season.
Learner Tien, the 18-year-old Californian who reached the finals of the Australian Open (lost to Alexander Blockx) and the semi-finals of Roland Garros (lost to Juan Carlos Prado Angelo) looms as the No. 11 seed at the Open. Tien, who fell to fellow American Frances Tiafoe in the first round of the men’s draw here, turned pro this summer. He faces Abel Forger of the Netherlands in the first round, and could again match up with Prado Angelo in the third round here.
Fifteen-year-old American Darwin Blanch, who turned down a wild card into the men’s qualifying due to a scheduling conflict, also lurks on the bottom half of the draw. The Floridian was a semi-finalist at Roland Garros, losing to eventual champ Dino Prizmic, and reached the final four at Wimbledon as well, losing to Demin.
On the girls' side, one thing we know for sure is that there will be a first-time Slam winner here at the Open. Alina Korneeva of Russia, winner of the Australian Open and Roland Garros, is not entered, and American Clervie Ngounoue, champion of Wimbledon, competed in the women’s singles at the Open (lost in first round) and as of this writing is still around in the women’s doubles, having reached the third round with Robin Montgomery, the 2021 U.S. Open girls singles winner.
Without Ngounoue and Korneeva, the draw looks wide open. Top seed Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia, 16, opens against Maya Joint of Australia, and Jamrichova could face a pair of Japanese players who could give her trouble in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, if No. 5 seed Mayu Crossley can advance to the final eight, with No. 4 seed Sara Saito lurking as a possible semi opponent.
No. 2 seed Lucciana Perez Alarcon, meanwhile, will be looking to make history for Peru.
Perez Alarcon, who has been supported in her tennis ambitions by the Grand Slam Player Development Programme, was the runner-up at Roland Garros and tries to do in New York what Alexandra Eala from the Philippines did last year: become the first girl from her country to win a Junior Grand Slam singles crown.
The 18-year-old starts her quest against Isabelle Lacy from Great Britain. Like Jamrichova, Perez Alarcon could face a pair of Japanese players on her way to history, as No. 3 seed Sayaka Ishii (a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon) and No. 6 seed Ena Koike (a 16-year-old who also reached the last eight at Wimbledon) both look dangerous on the bottom half.
The 2023 U.S. Open Junior Championships begin Sunday.