There will be much focus on Cairo from Monday as the Egyptian capital welcomes some of the world’s finest junior players while hosting the maiden J500 event of the 2024 season.

J500 tournaments provide premier playing opportunities for players on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors and are effectively a rung below Junior Grand Slams in terms of standing and the ranking points on offer.

As in previous years, Cairo will be the first of seven J500 events on the calendar this year and will go some way to moulding the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Rankings in the early stages of the season.

Last year, Cairo made North African history by becoming the first venue in the region to host an J500 event. Despite Africa having a long-standing history of staging junior competitions, North Africa had never previously hosted a tournament of this stature.

The event is effectively on rotation within Africa and this is the second year of three when the J500 will be held in Cairo, placing it on a par with the likes of Milan’s Trofeo Bonfiglio and the Orange Bowl in Florida, USA.

Czechia’s Laura Samson, who only last week won the first professional title of her career at W15 Monastir, is set to the highest-ranked player on show when play gets underway. The 15-year-old is ranked No. 4 in the ITF World Tennis Tour girls’ rankings.

Fellow Czech Alena Kovackova is also ranked within the Top 10 of the girls’ rankings and is set to feature on the clay courts of Cairo, alongside the likes of Serbia’s Teodora Kostovic and Bulgarian duo Iva Ivanova and Elizara Yaneva.

Maxim Mrva, another aspiring player from Czechia, will be the highest-ranked boy on show, while the likes of Romania’s Luca Preda, Reda Bennani of Morocco and fellow Czech Petr Brunclik will fancy their chances of lifting silverware.

Also taking to the court in the boys’ draw will be the highly-rated Thijs Boogaard of Netherlands and Jan Kumstat, who reached the final of the Australian Open Junior Championships last month before losing to Japan’s Rei Sakamoto.

Further information on J500 Cairo, including full acceptance lists, is available here