NEW YORK, September 3, 2018 (Press Release)
The US Open Junior Championships singles main draws began on Sunday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, and in an effort to promote sportsmanship, all junior matches will feature pre-match handshakes between players.
The Junior Championships will run through Sunday, September 9, with a number of notable storylines to follow:
- Fourteen-year old Cori ‘Coco’ Gauff, the 2018 French Open girls’ champion, is the No. 1 girls’ seed and is competing to become the first American to win two Grand Slam girls’ singles titles in the same year since Jennifer Capriati in 1989. Last year, Gauff was the youngest player to ever reach the girls’ singles final at the US Open before falling to American Amanda Anisimova.
- Three of the Top 5 seeds on the girls’ side are American, including New Jersey’s Alexa Noel (No. 2) and Cincinnati’s Caty McNally (No. 5). Should an American girl win the title here, it would be the sixth Grand Slam junior singles title in the last nine events won by an American.
- Chun Hsin Tseng, of Chinese Taipei, is vying to become the first junior to win three consecutive Grand Slam boys’ singles titles since Gael Monfils in 2004.
