The ITF’s ‘Class of…’ series recognises and celebrates players who have had a successful year on the ITF World Tennis Tour, identifying the year’s most promising and breakthrough talents, and those predicted to go on to bigger and better things next year. 
 
This year’s group was decided by a panel of experts: Ashley Keber (WTA), James Marsalek (ATP), Mark Woodforde (ITF), Mary Pierce (ITF), and Nao Kawatei (ITF), following a vote from a shortlist of 14 players. 

First up, it’s a 17-year-old who has not only dazzled in junior competition this year, but is making some confident strides in the women’s game.

Tereza Valentova will have been on the radar for ardent followers of junior tennis for some time.

For one, she’s Czech, and that alone is reason to keep half an eye on her given the litany of talented female tennis players from Czechia to have made waves on the WTA Tour in recent years.

But more than that, the teenager's stunning season on the ITF World Tennis Tour has delivered evidence to suggest that she is heading - at some pace - towards the upper echelons of the women's game.

Valentova was nothing short of a winning-machine between February and June, winning her first five professional singles titles in the space of five months. She began with back-to-back trophies on Tunisian hard courts at W15 Monastir, before cruising through higher-level challenges with victories at W75 Ricany and W75 Doksy–Stare Splavy (the latter her first pro win on clay) - either side of a triumph at W35 Sharm El Sheikh.

All this while technically still a junior, having only turned 17 in February.

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The teenager closed off her ITF junior career in fitting fashion in the middle portion of the season - winning the Roland Garros girls’ title without so much as dropping a set, and adding the girls' doubles crown alongside Renata Jamrichova - whom she overcame in the singles quarter-finals - for good measure.

The highest level of the junior tour poses a significant challenge, so beating two players who have since gone on to rank at junior world No. 1 in Jamrichova and Laura Samson, either side of dispatching junior world No. 2 Tyra Caterina Grant in a pressure-cooker Grand Slam environment in Paris, underlines Valentova's steel.

So too does her ability to win, and win consistently, in her first real season of professional competition.

Valentova has reeled off 38 match-wins to just five losses on the ITF World Tennis Tour this year – reaching further finals at W35 Annenheim and W50 Trnava on top of her five professional tournament triumphs. She faced five Top 200 players during the year and beat four of them - her best win coming against No. 115 Oceane Dodin.

Her coach, Lukas Jelicka, couldn’t be happier with the speed of her transition to the professional game.

“The year has been absolutely extraordinary,” he reflected. “Throughout the year Tereza defeated many excellent players, won tough tournaments and triumphed at the junior French Open.

“She gained more confidence, more experience and improved in every area of her game. I firmly believe that she will continue progressing in the next season. I’m confident that 2024 was just the beginning of her amazing career.”

Valentova’s rise is neatly summarised by her rocketing ranking. She began 2024 at No. 690 and catapulted over 400 spots to world No. 240 at the end of November, becoming one of 14 Czech women inside the current WTA Top 250.

What next from here? What this space.