Preview: 2023 Osaka Mayor's Cup
The Osaka Mayor’s Cup is underway at the Utsubo Tennis Centre, and it is yet another tournament on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors that has a rich and compelling history.
However, while the competition has a striking past, it is the game’s future which is very much in focus this week with a host of rising stars competing and bidding for silverware at J500 Osaka.
J500 events provide premier playing opportunities for players on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors and offer significant ranking points, prestige and glamour to those crowned champions.
In short, they are one rung below Junior Grand Slams and J500 Osaka is the fifth of seven such events on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors during what has been a packed 2023 calendar.
The ranking points on offer could well make a significant contribution to a player’s year-end ranking as the battle to finish the season as the top-ranked boy and girl on the planet really hots up.
Those contesting the Osaka Mayor’s Cup are also bidding to follow in some lofty footsteps, with the event boasting an impressive roll call of past winners.
In the last 20 years alone, the likes of Casper Ruud, Taylor Fritz, Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Wozniacki, Marin Cilic, Katerina Siniakova and Nick Kyrgios have all triumphed at J500 Osaka.
More than that, however, winning silverware at this level of junior competition was an important step on each of their respective tennis journeys as they progressed along the player pathway. The same could well apply to the class of 2023.
When the players take to Osaka’s hard courts this week, Italy’s Federico Cina, Joel Schwaerzler of Austria, home favourite Rei Sakamoto and Nicolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway will be the highest-ranked boys on show.
In the girls’ draw, Czechia’s Laura Samsonova, Kaitlin Quevedo of the United States, Great Britain’s Mingge Xu and Emerson Jones of Australia will be some of the higher ranked players bidding for glory and silverware.