Preview: 2025 Trofeo Bonfiglio, J500 Milan
As we prepare to witness the stars of tomorrow compete for Trofeo Bonfiglio at J500 Milan, it is the time of year when the junior world rankings start to take serious shape.
It also feels like a period when the juniors calendar hits overdrive with two Junior Grand Slams – the Roland Garros Junior Championships and the Junior Championships, Wimbledon – coming in quick succession.
The quest to lift Trofeo Bonfiglio gets underway on Monday and it will be once again competed for at Tennis Club Milano Alberto Bonacossa – a place of history and grandeur.
Tennis has been enjoyed at Tennis Club Milano Alberto Bonacossa since 1893 and while next week’s focus will be the game’s future, with a host of rising stars competing, its past is striking in more ways than one.
Those contesting J500 Milan are bidding to follow in some exceptionally lofty footsteps, with the event boasting an awe-inspiring roll call of past winners.
In the last 20 years alone, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexei Popyrin, Elena Rybakina, Marketa Vondrousova, Alexander Zverev, Belinda Bencic, Katerina Siniakova, Sloane Stephens and Simona Halep have all triumphed at J500 Milan.
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Winning silverware at this level of junior competition was an important step on each of their respective tennis journeys as they advanced their careers and progressed along the player pathway.
Going further back, the likes of Jim Courier, Gabriela Sabatini, Ivan Lendl and Jan Kodes also topped the J500 Milan podium so when making reference to the event’s history, the class of 2024 really are following greatness.
When the players take to Milan’s clay-courts next week, the boy’ draw will by spearheaded by Finland’s Oskari Paldanius, who at No. 4 in the ITF World Tennis Tour boys’ rankings is the highest-ranked player.
Paldanius is a member of the ITF-operated Grand Slam Player Development Programme Touring Team, which offers players from less developed tennis nations the opportunity to travel and compete at higher-level tournaments than might otherwise be possible.
He has mainly contested professional events on the ITF World Tennis Tour this season and reached the final at M15 Sharm El Sheikh in March, but in the junior tournaments he has played he has performed to a high level.
He advanced to the semi-finals J300 Traralgon and the Australian Open Junior Championships, losing on both occasions to eventual champion Henry Bernet of Switzerland. He will also contest a semi-final today at J300 Santa Croce sull’Arno.
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Paldanius is certainly one to keep a close eye on during J500 Milan, as is junior world No. 5 Jagger Leach of the United States, who is fresh from winning the joint-biggest title of his career at J300 Indian Wells last month.
The likes of Benjamin Willwerth of the United States, Italy’s Jacopo Vasami and Jack Kennedy – another American –will be eyeing silverware and, as a consequence, a significant rankings boost.
As an aside, last year’s boys’ champion at J500 Milan, Kaylan Bigun, went on to conquer all before him at the Roland Garros Junior Championships, so lifting Trofeo Bonfiglio could well have added meaning.
In the girls’ draw, three of the four top-ranked players are Czech, with Tereza Krejcova, Jana Kovackova and her elder sister Alena Kovackova bidding for honours in northern Italy.
All three have significant pedigree with Krejcova having previous experience of winning a J500 event having triumphed at the season-ending Orange Bowl, also known as J500 Plantation, in December.
Jana Kovackova, meanwhile, became the first player born in 2010 to win a professional singles title after lifting silverware at W35 Antalya in March. She does not turn 15 until next month.
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This follows last season when Kovackova was the most successful girl on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors, winning a combined 17 titles (eight singles and nine doubles) – the most since 1994 when Federico Browne of Argentina won 21.
Alena Kovackova has junior titles to her name also, and along with the likes of Great Britain’s Hannah Klugman, Charo Esquiva Banuls of Spain and Thea Frodin of the United States – all previous J500 winners – will be eyeing glory.
As a reminder, J500 tournaments provide premier playing opportunities for players on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors and offer significant ranking points to those crowned champions.
In short, J500s are one rung below Junior Grand Slams and J500 Milan is the fourth of seven such events on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors in 2025.
It is also worth noting that any ranking points accrued in Milan will contribute towards qualification for October’s ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals in Chengdu.
The ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals showcase the best junior players on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors from the previous 12 months.
The Finals will consist of the top eight boys and girls in the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals Qualification Rankings. The Qualification Rankings can be viewed here.