Popyrin, Osuigwe crowned 2017 Roland Garros champions
Alexei Popyrin collected his first junior boys' title at 2017 Roland Garros, defeating Spain's Nicola Kuhn 7-6(5) 6-3 in the final.
Popyrin, who had played in six previous Grand Slam junior events but hadn't previously progressed beyond the round-of-16 - having reached that stage in Paris last year - was understandably delighted with his breakthrough.
"It feels amazing," Popyrin said. "Winning any tournament feels great, but especially when you win a Grand Slam, you feel over the moon. It's what you have been working for. It's what you have been striving for. It's just great to get that step done. Now we have to move on to the pros and try to do the same in the next level."
Popyrin, who arrived in Paris on the back of winning his first Grade A title at the Trofeo Bonfiglio event, will likely end his junior career after this milestone. There is some talk about him contesting the junior Wimbledon event, but there's also a real belief that he is ready to move exclusively on to the professional circuit.
Popyrin joins a number of heavyweight Australian players to have won the Roland Garros junior title, including Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson, John Newcombe and Phil Dent.
While Popyrin was born in Sydney to Russian parents, the family moved to Spain (first Alicante, now Marbella) a few years ago to facilitate his practicing on clay courts. He also spends time training in Nice, France with Patrick Mouratoglou.
Of the match against Kuhn, Popyrin knew that it was the confidence factor that delivered the win.
"The match was great," he said. "The match was solid. Couple breaks here and there, but it was a mental game. It was whoever stayed stronger mentally."
Popyrin did offer a glimpse into what he hopes his future will bring.
"I would love to play in Davis Cup, love to be an orange boy at least maybe this year or maybe next year," he said. "Yeah, for sure winning Davis Cup for my country is one of the main goals."
Of course, before he can look to the possibilities for the future there were more immediate concerns; how to commemorate winning a first Grand Slam title, for instance.
"I don't know," he said, laughing. "I have never won a tournament of this magnitude. I don't know what we will do, but I know I have to fly back to Nice and then drive to Marbella for two days, and then probably when I get home I'll have a couple days' rest."
In the all-American girls final, 15-year-old Whitney Osuigwe and 17-year-old Claire Liu were vying to become the first American girl to win at Roland Garros since Jennifer Capriati in 1989.
They were also the second ever all-American final in the junior girls in Roland Garros history - Kathy Horvath defeated Kelly Henry in the 1980 final.
And the newest USA girls' champion at Roland Garros is Osuigwe, who won 6-4 6-7 (5) 6-3 in a girls' singles final that took two hours and seven minutes to conclude. It took five match points in the third set to get the deed done - two on her serve in the seventh game and two on Liu's serve in the eighth game before she closed out the encounter at love in the ninth.
After the victory, it took Osuigwe a little time before she beamed a smile to the crowd and offered a little wave. Later on, she said she said she has 'just has one of those faces that doesn't show emotions'.
"I was really excited," Osuigwe said. "It's good that all my hard work finally paid off. Claire is a tough opponent. She took it to three. And obviously after I was up 5-1, 40-15 (in the third), she kept fighting."
It was quite the turn around for Osuigwe, who had lost to Liu 6-1 6-1 in the only other time they played at this year's Easter Bowl.
There was clearly no hard feelings between the two after the match. When Osuigwe was asked how she plans on celebrating her victory, unlike Popyrin she knew what she'd be doing this Saturday night in Paris.
"I think actually me and Claire are going to go into the town and we're going to go to dinner," said Osuigwe.
Meanwhile, top seeds Nicola Kuhn of Spain and Zsombor Piros of Hungary posted a 6-4 6-4 win over Americans Vasil Kirkov and Danny Thomas to secure the boys' doubles title.
In the girls' doubles, top seeds Bianca Andreescu and Carson Branstine of Canada defeated second seeds Olesya Pervushina and Anastasia Potapova of Russia 6-1 6-3.