USTA Press Release, December 11, 2017

Fifteen-year old American Whitney Osuigwe capped a prolific junior tennis season by winning the Orange Bowl Girls’ 18s title on Sunday, defeating Ukraine’s Margaryta Bilokin, 6-1, 6-2, at the Veltri Tennis Center in Plantation, Fla.

Osuigwe, a Bradenton, Fla., native whose father, Desmond, coaches her out of the IMG Academy, finished the year as the No. 1-ranked junior in the world and the ITF World Junior Champion — the third American girl and fourth American overall to hold those distinctions in the last six years (Taylor Fritz, 2015; CiCi Bellis, 2014; Taylor Townsend, 2012).

In junior play, Osuigwe went 57-8 in singles and 34-9 in doubles in 2017, won the French Open girls’ singles title and helped lead the U.S. to its fourth 16-and-under Junior Fed Cup title in the last 10 years.

“I’m really happy,” Osuigwe said. “I’ve always done pretty well here, getting to the semis last year and winning the time I played before that (Girls’ 12s, in 2014), so I was really excited to win this tournament and finish off my – maybe this is my last junior match, I don’t know – but to finish off my junior career like this, it’s amazing.

“I’m just going to transition further into the pro level,” Osuigwe said. “I still have limitations on tournaments, on what I can do next year, so I’m just going to have a couple of training blocks, maybe play some 25Ks. I know I’m going to play the Miami Open.”