Preview: 2026 Roland Garros Junior Championships
The world’s best junior players – the stars of tomorrow – are in Paris ready to grab a share of the clay-court limelight as the countdown to the Roland Garros Junior Championships continues.
The second Junior Grand Slam of the season gets underway on Sunday and as well as performing alongside the game’s pros, the world’s top juniors will bid to enhance their reputations, lift silverware and scoop valuable ranking points.
This is the stage of the season when the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Rankings really take shape and, with the Junior Championships, Wimbledon just around the corner, this period matters.
Looking at the boys’ draw, German’s Jamie MacKenzie is a player in red-hot form having won successive J500 titles at J500 Offenbach and then J500 Milan.
J500s provide premier playing opportunities for players on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors and are a rung below Junior Grand Slams in terms of ranking points.
When the 18-year-old triumphed at J500 Offenbach earlier this month, he became the first German boy to win a J500 singles title since Alexander Zverev in 2013 and has since jumped to a career-high No. 4 in the ITF World Tennis Tour boys’ rankings.
Two of the three players above him in the rankings – Brazil’s Luis Guto Miguel and Yannick Theodor Alexandrescou – will also be competing at Roland Garros and will be well worth keeping an eye on.
Incidentally, J500 Milan was the fourth of seven J500s taking place in 2026 and the other J500 winners so this season – Austria’s Thilo Behrmann and Dante Pagani of Argentina – are in Paris and eyeing a deep run.
Also in the boys’ draw will be Ziga Sesko, who earlier this year became the first Slovenian boy to win a Junior Grand Slam singles title by conquering all before him at the Australian Open Junior Championships.
The 17-year-old also became the first member of the ITF-operated Grand Slam Player Development Programme Touring Team to win a Junior Grand Slam singles title since Ricardas Berankis in 2007. He is quite the operator.
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A couple of the other personalities fighting for honours in Paris will be American duo Michael Antonius and Andrew Johnson. Both players have made significant impressions already this season and they have made their presences felt at professional level on the ITF World Tennis Tour.
By winning M15 Sunrise in Florida in February aged 16 years and 176 days, Johnson became the youngest player to win an ITF World Tennis Tour men’s singles title since Carlos Alcaraz in July 2019. Alcaraz was 16 years and 84 days.
That triumph also ensured Johnson became the second-youngest American player to win an ITF World Tennis Tour men’s singles title (since men’s ITF World Tennis Tour records began in 1990) after Rhyne Williams in 2007.
A month later, however, Antonius overtook both Johnson and Williams to become the youngest American to win a men’s singles title on the ITF World Tennis Tour when he conquered all before him at M25 Bakersfield.
Antonius and Johnson were both members of the United States team that won the 2025 Davis Cup Juniors title in Santiago, Chile as their nation won the competition for the second year running.
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Those are just some names with which to conjure. A few others: Jack Kennedy, Keaton Hance, Ryo Tabata and Zangar Nurlanulay. In short, everywhere you turn, there are talented players capable of lifting silverware.
In the girl’s draw, France’s Ksenia Efremova will contest her first junior event since conquering all before at the Australian Open Junior Championships – the first Junior Grand Slam of the season – in January.
By lifting silverware at the Happy Slam, Efremova became just the second French player to win the Australian Open girls' singles title – after Virginie Razzano in 1999 – and the first this century.
The 17-year-old has four ITF World Tennis Tour Women's titles to her name as she continues her journey along the ITF player pathway.
Another name to keep tabs on is Jana Kovackova of Czechia. The 15-year-old is hugely talented and will be contesting her second junior event since the Australian Open after reaching the semi-finals at J500 Milan.
Kovackova has two professional titles to her name, both won on the ITF World Tennis Tour in 2025, while she claimed a staggering eight ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors titles in 2024. She is ranked No. 6 in the ITF World Tennis Tour girls’ rankings.
Like in the boys’ draw, all winners of this season’s J500 events – Nauhany Vitoria Leme da Silva, Ida Wobker, Victoria Barros and Sun Xinran – will be contesting the Roland Garros Junior Championships.
Sun’s victory at J500 Milan catapulted her to a career-high No. 2 in the ITF World Tennis Tour girls’ rankings, while she is the first Chinese player – boy or girl – to win two J500 singles titles.
Sun’s victory followed her breakthrough win at J500 Fort Lauderdale – or the Orange Bowl as it is also known – in December. Winning two J500s is even more impressive given she is still only 15 years old.
She is the sixth-youngest girl to win two J500 singles titles, with Anna Kournikova, Carolina Wozniacki and Amanda Anisimova among the names to have done so at an earlier age.
Barros, meanwhile, occupies a career-high No. 4 in the ITF World Tennis Tour girls’ rankings. Her triumph at J500 Offenbach was the biggest singles title of the 16-year-old’s career and came after losing two previous finals.
Barros, who was videoed having a hit with Brazilian football legend Ronaldo – also known as R9 – last year, has serious pedigree and made her Billie Jean King Cup debut for Brazil in April.
Her conqueror in the girls’ final at J500 Gaspar in March was Leme da Silva, who will also be bidding for silverware in the French capital.
But like the boys’ draw, there are potential champions everywhere. The likes of Sol Ailin Larraya Guidi, Anastasija Cvetkovic, Mariia Makarova, Charo Esquiva Banuls and Yushan Shao will all have designs on success.
As ever, the ITF-operated Grand Slam Player Development Programme Touring Team will be represented at the Roland Garros Junior Championships as part of their European tour.
Each year, groups of talented players from underrepresented nations are invited to join the team. The players then travel as a team, have access to high-performance coaches and are exposed to events outside of their region.
The Touring Team programme provides pivotal support, easing financial constraints, for players who might otherwise be unable to compete at the level they do.
As ever, all ranking points won at Roland Garros will count towards qualification for October’s ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals – the junior equivalent of the ATP and WTA Finals.
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.