If they have not done so already, the cream of the junior crop – the stars of tomorrow – will soon be arriving in Paris to grab a share of the limelight at the Roland Garros Junior Championships.

The second Junior Grand Slam of the 2022 season gets underway on Sunday and as well as performing alongside the pros of the game, junior players have the chance to enhance their reputations, lift silverware and scoop valuable ranking points.

Both singles winners from the Australian Open Junior Championships, USA’s Bruno Kuzuhara and Petra Marcinko of Croatia, will take their respective places in the boys’ and girls’ draws.

Kuzuhara, who also won the doubles at Melbourne Park alongside Hong Kong’s Coleman Wong, is the No. 1-ranked boy in the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Rankings and the only previous Junior Grand Slam singles champion in the boys’ draw.

Should the 18-year-old win back-to-back Junior Grand Slam titles, he will become the first boy to do so since Tseng Chun Hsin of Chinese Taipei, who triumphed at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, in 2018.

Incidentally, the previous American boy to be crowned champion at successive Junior Grand Slams was Van Winitsky – Wimbledon and the US Open – way back in 1977, while Andy Roddick was the last to win two in the same year in 2000.

Fellow junior world No. 1 Marcinko, meanwhile, does not hold the monopoly on Junior Grand Slam singles titles in the girls’ draw, with Andorra’s Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva ready for battle on the clay of the French capital.

Crowned an ITF World Champion after finishing 2021 as the year-end No. 1 girl, Marcinko will attempt to become the first girl to top the podium at consecutive Junior Grand Slams since Belinda Bencic – an Olympic gold medallist at Tokyo 2020 – in 2013.

Hot on her heels, however, is Belgium’s Sofia Costoulas, who stands at No. 2 in the rankings having won four junior titles this season, including the biggest of her career at JA Offenbach – a Grade A, the highest classification of ITF junior event – in April.

Before losing to Australia’s Taylah Preston in the third round at Milan’s Trofeo Bonfiglio earlier this month, Costoulas – the runner-up to Marcinko at the Australian Open – had won 29 of the 30 junior matches she contested in 2022.

Like Costoulas, Czech Republic’s Jakub Mensik will be looking to go one better this time around after falling short in the Australian Open boys’ final as Kuzuhara prevailed in three sets.

But there will be many other contenders – and too many to mention – with the likes of Daniel Vallejo of Paraguay, Croatia’s Mili Poljicak and Peruvian Gonzalo Bueno not in Paris to simply make up the numbers.

Then there is Nishesh Basavareddy. The 17-year-old would appear to be regaining form and fitness after an injury-hit few years, with two Grade A triumphs – at Criciuma in February and more recently in Milan – firing him to No. 5 in the boys’ rankings.

As with the boys, a challenge could come from almost any quarter in the girls’ draw and no doubt 15-year-old Brenda Fruhvirtova of Czech Republic will be eyeing a maiden Junior Grand Slam victory.

Fruhvirtova, who was a member of the all-conquering Czech team at the 2021 Junior Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas Finals in Antalya, has already won two women’s titles on the ITF World Tennis Tour this season. She is very much one to watch.

Diana Shnaider, meanwhile, has won two Junior Grand Slam doubles titles, most recently at the Australian Open alongside Clervie Ngounoue of the United States, and she will have designs on repeating the feat in the singles.

Jimenez Kasintseva was only 14 years old when she triumphed at the 2020 Australian Open and has since chalked up an ITF World Tennis Tour Women’s title. Her WTA Ranking of No. 156 suggests a title charge here could well be imminent.

In short, nobody knows the destination of silverware, that is the beauty of sport. What is certain is another enthralling Junior Grand Slam awaits.

Further information relating to the 2022 Roland Garros Junior Championships, including the full acceptance list, can be found here.

Members of the Grand Slam Development Player Programme Programme/ITF Touring Team will be competing at the Roland Garros Junior Championships. More information is available here.