Top seed Emerson Jones’s No. 1 goal for 2025 is to go as high as she can in the WTA Rankings.

“I want to get my women’s ranking up to get into the Slams. I am borderline, about 290, and I need to be higher in the 200s,” she said after her first round win at the 2025 Australian Open Junior Championships. 

It was just before 7pm when Jones and the qualifier Anastasia Lizunova came onto Court No. 3. Shade was not yet all around the ground but exactly one hour later they were done, Jones the victor, 6-3 6-3.

Her 16-year-old opponent was made of stern stuff, hard hitting and as fast a player between points as we will see anywhere this fortnight.

Her serve was a case of two very quick bounces and then ‘thwack’, an ace or double fault invariably the outcome. She looks something of a star and with a little more time and experience she will be a formidable player.

Jones, however, gets better and better. She finished 2024 as the No. 1-ranked girl on the planet and, as such, will be named an ITF World Champion. This followed a fabulous season which included lifting silverware at the ITF Junior Finals in October.

She then continued her journey along the ITF player pathway by claiming her first professional title at W75 Sydney in December having already reached a final and two semis on the ITF World Tennis Tour in 2024.

Earlier this month, she claimed her maiden victory - in her first match - against a Top 50 opponent when she defeated world No. 37 Wang Xinyu at the WTA's Adelaide International. She proceeded to make her Grand Slam main draw debut as a wild card this week, losing out to former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina. 

Jones's style was as ever, with belting strokes on either side from one baseline to the other. There is pace, power and composure and the Aussie will be the player to beat this week. She is yet to win a Junior Grand Slam title and, with the girls' final next Saturday, she may need to keep the date free.

Court No. 3 at 11am was a mini paradise for spectators, shaded on all four sides and every seat close to the action.

It was less idyllic for the players, the sun beating down all match on Great Britain's Mingge Xu and Aussie Ava Beck. Xu took it in her stride, overpowering Grand Slam debutant Beck - backed by a healthy home support - 6-1 6-1 in just 62 minutes.

Already Xu looks like a a strong title-contender this week, with her run to the semi-finals at the US Open Junior Championships last September a real confidence-booster.

“I think it’s more how my game has developed, that’s what’s given me the biggest confidence boost," she said.

"I have realised through the course of the US that I don’t need to play my best tennis to get through some tough matches and I think that experience has helped me move forward.”

Can she go one step further and make the final this time? Xu would not be drawn but has an impressive outlook.

“I am confident in my game," she added. "If I can keep controlling what I can control, be happy and enjoy every moment then who knows what I can do?”

Watching her compatriot Jack Draper win three tough, five-set matches in the men’s draw has been a real motivator this week.

“He is not playing his best but he’s finding a way and I think at the end of the day that’s what you have to do at times, so it’s really inspiring and reinforces that you don’t need to be at your best," she said. 

Playing in the 30 degree heat calls for a warm down routine that feels far more strenuous than the 62 minutes she was on court.

“I’ll stretch, eat, shower, ice bath and physio,” said Xu.

It is the ice bath that stands out and where she will spend a mind-boggling 15 minutes.

“The ones here (at Melbourne Park) aren’t too cold," she said. "The other day I went to one in the city, it was two degrees and that was killing my toes. 

“It’s 10 degrees here, they’ve got a hot bath as well so once you brave out the 15 minutes you can go in that.”

Each to their own. 

A full list of results from the 2025 Australian Open Junior Championships is available here