Rebecca Munk Mortensen recorded the biggest upset of the day at the 2023 Roland Garros Junior Championships on Tuesday, beating No. 4 seed Kaitlin Quevedo in straight sets 7-6(8) 6-3.

The Dane is making strong progress this year after qualifying - and reaching the third round - at the Australian Open (falling to eventual champion Alina Korneeva), and also winning the J300 in Villena on clay. Her success on the red stuff makes her smile because with her powerful and aggressive game, she’s clearly more naturally at ease on hard court.

“But the clay here is faster and the bounce is a bit more even," she reasons. "It’s probably not my favorite surface but I really like it here and I think these courts suit my game very well."

Mortensen, the junior world No. 34, relishes the experience of playing another junior Grand Slam.

“It means a lot for me to play well here," she said. "There’s also a lot of pressure, because you want to perform well when you’re playing on such a big stage. It’s really nice that I can play some of my best tennis.”

It’s her first time at Roland Garros but she has been watching the event - and her fellow Dane Caroline Wozniacki [a junior Grand Slam champion at Wimbledon in 2006] - for years.

“I was watching all the Slams as a kid so playing here on the same courts as a pro is big for me. I’ve watched Caroline Wozniacki my whole life, also Serena Williams and now Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff. It means a lot to me to play the same tournament as them.”

What’s been her secret to overcome Quevedo today, especially after such a huge battle in the first set?

“What I’ve done well at this tournament is finding a lot of confidence and believing in myself," she said. "I’ve also stayed patient, kept fighting and giving myself at 100% on each point that I’ve played. That’s why I’ve been able to reach such a high level.”

Munk Mortensen obviously thinks beyond her Junior years and has an eye on the professional Tour as she hones her game.

“Juniors at this level is going to help develop my game a lot, because the level is so high as we can see some of the top players at these tournaments also doing very well on the women’s Tour. It also gives me the motivation to see, in tournaments like this, how it is for the professionals to play these big tournaments.”

Renata Jamrichova, the No. 7 seed, knows the junior Grand Slam experience well already but she is hoping for more than experience this time out. A quarter-finalist at the Australian Open, the Slovakian qualified for the third round by beating German Sonja Zhiyenbayeva 6-3 6-3.

"I played well but lost against Mirra Andreeva [in Melbourne]. I was sad at the time but now I’m okay with it"

“In Melbourne, it was the first time I passed the first round so I was already so happy to have won the first match of the main draw. I played well but lost against Mirra Andreeva. I was sad at the time but now I’m okay with it," she laughs. "They are the biggest tournaments so I feel the pressure but I try to work with it. I try to tell myself that if I lose, I’ll move on to another tournament, that there will be another opportunity. And overall it’s helping my tennis to grow.”

Another aggressive player, Jamrichova, who trains at the national tennis center in Bratislava, doesn’t intend to change her game style to adjust to the slower surface.

“I had to learn to like clay because my game is aggressive, and I want to keep playing aggressively, so I like hard court and grass," she said. "Clay is the worst for me even if I practiced on it growing up.”

She might have an infamous Spaniard to thank for still caring very much about the red dirt. 

“Rafa Nadal is the king of clay so I always watched the final when he played. This is my first Roland Garros so now I can check the atmosphere by myself!”

Mayu Crossley, the eighth seed, also felt the nerves of a player who has big ambitions in the tournament.

The Japanese triumphed at the Orange Bowl last season and it gave her a huge boost of confidence, confirmed by her 6-1 6-2 win on Tuesday against Alessandra Teodosescu.

“I felt like ‘Oh I can play high-level tennis” so I gain some confidence from that, but also more pressure. I’m trying to play some professional tournaments, like 25K which I find more challenging. Juniors give me more pressure mentally.”

Crossley, who trains in Florida at the Chris Evert Academy, doesn’t hide the fact that this Roland Garros means a lot to her.

“This is my second junior Grand Slam and this tournament is big for me because there’s a lot of history here," she said. "It’s very important so I get very nervous sometimes. Here I feel nervous every day because I want to do well, because I’ve been training for this for a long time. But at the same time I’m very excited to play. I like hard court but I’m starting to like clay court now. Clay is better to play because my tennis is more about the long rallies and slices.”

As a kid she played many sports, including soccer and swimming, but she opted to pursue life with a racket in hand.

“I picked tennis because I liked that I was playing by myself," she said. "I then decided to make a career out of it when watching Djokovic and Federer because that looked so cool.”

There is no contesting that.