Find out the junior players who are impressing as 2025 unfolds | ITF
Article 16 Jun 2025

Find out the junior players who are impressing as 2025 unfolds

Ross McLean and Nick Searle-Donoso

16 Jun 2025

With two Junior Grand Slams completed and the Junior Championships, Wimbledon fast approaching, now would seem a good time to delve into the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors and champion those players who are thriving in 2025.

There have been some compelling storylines from the Junior Grand Slams so far. At Roland Garros, Lilli Tagger became the first Austrian to win a Junior Grand Slam singles title in Paris.

In the boys’ draw, Niels McDonald became the first German boy this century to win a Junior Grand Slam singles title there, while there were similar stories at January’s Australian Open.

Henry Bernet became the first Swiss player – boy or girl – to win a Junior Grand Slam singles title at the Aussie Open, while Wakana Sonobe became the first Japanese girl to be crowned girls’ champion at the Happy Slam. 

Four of the seven J500 events, which are essentially one run below Junior Grand Slams in terms of ranking points on offer, have also taken place. The most recent J500 was at Milan – the Trofeo Bonfiglio – in May where Jacopo Vasami ended Italy’s 13-year wait for a boys’ singles champion.

But we are going to dig a little deeper, go beyond the headlines and find some other movers and shakers on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors in 2025: 

    • Wonmin Kim of Korea, Rep. is the clear Tour leader in terms of titles won in 2025 having clocked up 10 already. The 16-year-old has won five singles and five doubles titles so far this season, which sees him lead the standings in terms of combined number of titles and number of singles triumphs. Six other players have won five doubles titles this campaign. Two of Kim’s titles have come at J60 level and three at J30 level.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Wonmin Kim (@kimwon_min)

    • Sabrina Balderrama of Venezuela trails Kim by two titles overall but has won more titles than any other girl on the ITF World Tennis Tour this season. The 15-year-old has won eight titles this campaign – three in singles and five in doubles. Included within her singles triumphs is a career-best triumph at J100 La Paz.

    • The longest winning streak on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors this season belongs to Israel’s Ofir Manhard. This winning streak is ongoing with Manhard having won her previous 20 matches in winning J30 Raanana, J60 Haifa, J60 Tel Aviv and J60 Larnaca. The next best winning streak is the 15 of Theodor-Matei Ene (ROU), Natsuki Irokawa (JPN) and Alkis Michalakopoulos (GRE).

    • The accolade for most singles match-wins on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors in 2025 goes to Yuan Cheng Yang of China, P.R. The 18-year-old has so far chalked up 35 match-wins, just one ahead of Kim who has won the most titles. Those match-wins have seen Yang win titles at two J30 Maanshan events, J30 Wuning and J60 Shenzhen.

  • The biggest mover in terms of rankings on the boys’ side is Turkiye’s Alpay Guler, who has risen 2745 places since the start of the year and now occupies No. 503 in the ITF World Tennis Tour boys' rankings. Other risers of note have been India’s Vivaan Bidasaria, who has risen 2158 places to No. 1090 and Australia’s Raphael Savelli, who has risen 2114 places to No. 1033.

  • On the girls’ side, 14-year-old Aarini Bhattacharya of the United States – fuelled by the maiden two junior titles of her career at J30 Montego Bay – has risen 2728 places to No. 852 in the ITF World Tennis Tour girls’ rankings. Fellow American Natalie Kha, meanwhile, has risen 2393 places to No. 616 in the rankings. The 16-year-old has won singles titles at J30 Claremont and J100 Las Vegas so far this season.

These are just a few names with which to conjure as the 2025 campaign continues to unfold, but others will most certainly flicker on this particular radar as the season progresses.