Draw made for 2025 Australian Open Junior Championships
Court No. 3 is the very first show court spectators see when they enter Melbourne Park from the railway entrance. It’s bowl shaped, can accommodate about 3,000 spectators and its 12 or so rows of seats start at head height for anyone standing on court.
It is where, on Saturday, several heavyweights of the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors will make their Junior Grand Slam debuts this year in the 2025 Australian Open Junior Championships.
The day begins with Great Britain's Mingge Xu facing off against Australia’s Ava Beck, a 16-year-old ranked No. 87 in the ITF World Tennis Tour girls' rankings.
Then, sometime in the late afternoon, Australia’s Emerson Jones will take to Court No. 3 for her first-round showdown. She has much to motivate her after making last year's final but losing out to Slovakia's Renata Jamrichova.
Jones, who also reached the final at the 2024 Junior Championships, Wimbledon has already beaten world No. 37 Wang Xinyu at the WTA 500 Adelaide International this month and made her Aussie Open main draw debut earlier this week when she fell to the sixth seed, Elena Rybakina.
Comparisons with another Queensland prodigy, Ash Barty, are everywhere right now but the likeable 16-year-old is her own person. Do not expect a Mirra Andreeva-style surge up the rankings but do not underestimate her in 2025, either.
Jones plays the qualifier Anastasia Lizunova, in round one.
Belgium’s Jeline Vandromme will also be hopeful of a maiden Junior Grand Slam title after dropping just 21 games in six matches as she won last week's warm-up event at J300 Traralgon. The Australian Open is the only Junior Grand Slam she has not yet played. She sits in the other half of the draw to Jones and faces the Australian wildcard Koharu Nishikawa in round one on Sunday.
Another player not to discount is Great Britian's Mika Stojsavljevic. Seeded No. 2 in the girls' draw, she has drawn Romania’s Anamaria Federica Oana and they will play in the fifth and final match on Court No. 14 on Saturday.
Cruz Hewitt, meanwhile, will hope his outing as a wildcard in Australian Open Qualifying last week (he lost to Nikoloz Basilashvili in round one) will help when he faces South Korean qualifier MooBeen Kim in the boys’ singles on Saturday.
Kim is ranked just 12 places, at No. 72, below Hewitt in the ITF World Tennis Tour boys' rankings and will provide a stern test for the Aussie, who attracted a full house for his Australian Open Junior Championships debut a year ago. The prize for the winner is a potential clash with No. 1 seed Jan Kumstat.
Kumstat, a tall and rangy Czech with a formidable serve, was unlucky in losing a close three-set final here 12 months ago. He turned 18 this month and will be the player to beat this week.
However, Switzerland’s Henry Bernet - like Roger Federer, from Basel - is the form athlete after winning the boys' title at Traralgon.
Bernet has played six matches and won all six this year and tees off against Brazil’s Luis Guto Miguel on Saturday. Bernet has not played the Australian Open previously but has a more than solid chance of a first Junior Grand Slam crown.
Finally, a note on the crowds the juniors can expect this weekend. Thursday set an Australian Open attendance record with 95,881 spectators making it to Melbourne Park. Many will stick to their allocated seats on the main courts but the grounds feel busier and more bustling than ever and sheer numbers suggest every court will have more people dropping in or passing by.
Noisy perhaps - and hot with temperatures above 30 degrees forecast - but also the most engaging and worthwhile of experiences for every junior in the draw.