Respect, tolerance and strategy are the three words Argentina’s Thiago Agustin Tirante opts for when asked for the main lessons he has learned this season. Considering the 18-year-old’s campaign, they are not bad principles by which to be guided.

From a combined year-end finish of No. 134 in 2018, Tirante has stormed up the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Rankings presented by IMG Academy over the past 12 months and enters the ITF Juniors Finals occupying the No. 6 position. He also finished sixth in the Road to Chengdu standings.

Along the way there has been Junior Grand Slam doubles glory at Roland Garros, where he and Brazil’s Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida lifted silverware after navigating the field without dropping a set.

Predictably, the final was the closest-fought affair, with the first set being decided by a tiebreak, although the South American pair proved too strong for Italy’s Flavio Cobolli and Dominic Stricker of Switzerland.

“Winning my first Grand Slam title will always be one of my best memories and I’m very proud of this achievement – it was great for me to get it,” Tirante told itftennis.com. “Winning the doubles in Paris has also had a positive effect on my singles. It has benefitted me in a lot of ways.”

His singles play was hardly in bad shape prior to his triumph in the French capital, with Tirante reigning at JA Porto Alegre in February after defeating American duo Toby Kodat and Martin Damm in the semis and final respectively.

In fact, Tirante cites victory on the Brazilian clay as his standout moment of a season in which he also reached the final of JA Milan before losing to Jonas Forejtek, although he did beat fellow Chengdu qualifiers Shintaro Mochizuki and Harold Mayot en route.

The La Plata-born teenager has also made progress on the ITF World Tennis Tour Men’s and progressed to the final of M15 Cancun in August after again dispatching Wimbledon boys’ champion Mochizuki in the earlier rounds.

“It has been a very good season because I was ranked over 100 but have moved to where I am now in just a few months,” said Tirante. “Being classified as one of the top eight players and qualifying for the ITF Junior Finals shows my progress.”

Argentina have been well represented at the ITF Junior Finals in recent years, with Sebastian Baez featuring in the last two editions of the tournament and Axel Geller contesting the 2017 edition also.

Despite a healthy presence, the flag of Argentina, or that of any South American nation, has yet to be flown from the top of the winners’ podium at the Sichuan International Tennis Centre. The gauntlet has been thrown down.

“I haven’t had too many chances to talk with the guys [Baez and Geller] in detail about the ITF Junior Finals and Chengdu, but they have assured me and guaranteed that it is an amazing experience,” added Tirante.

“I feel like I have prepared well, although I’m a little anxious. It’s a very important tournament for me because, as I say, only the best eight boys in the world are here. To finish the season with a trophy at a big tournament would be great. We will see.”