USA's Penickova, Bulgaria's Ivanov End Year as ITF World Junior Champions; All Four IMG Academy International 12s and 14s Champions Reach Semifinals at Junior Orange Bowl

The ITF has released the 2025 year-end junior rankings, with American Kristina Penickova and Bulgaria Ivan Ivanov finishing at the No. 1 spot.

Penickova won two junior slam doubles titles this year, and finished as runnerup at the Australian Open Junior Championships, but her biggest singles title in 2025 was the J300 in San Diego, back in March. She barely beat out US Open singles and World Junior Tennis Finals champion Jeline Vandromme of Belgium, with less than 110 points separating the two in the rankings. Wimbledon girls finalist Julieta Pareja, at No. 5, is the other American in the Top 10 in the year-end rankings.

Penickova was at the Orange Bowl supporting twin Annika, with a wrist brace on her left hand; she is the right-hander of the sisters.

Kristina Liutova is up to 41 in the last ITF junior rankings of 2025 after reaching the Orange Bowl final, but she does not appear in the year-end rankings, as she did not play enough events to qualify. 

Here's the rule to receive a year-end ranking: To be eligible for a 2025 year-end ranking a junior must have played in a minimum of six individual junior singles tournaments, including at least three Grand Slam and/or J500 tournaments and including at least three ranking tournaments outside his/her own country. Each Grand Slam or J500 tournament won will count as two tournaments played. Each Grand Slam or J500 tournament won will further count as one foreign tournament played.

Ivanov won both the Wimbledon and US Open boys titles, so he finished more than 500 points ahead of ITF World Junior Finals champion Max Schoenhaus of Germany. Jack Kennedy and Benjamin Willwerth are the two Americans in the year-end Top 10 rankings, at 6 and 7. The Top 10 is especially significant for the boys, as it qualifies them for main draw Challenger wild cards in 2026.

Andy Johnson and Michael Antonius do not appear in the year-end rankings, although they are 28 and 29 in the final rankings, because they did not play enough slams or J500s this year.

The semifinals are tomorrow at the Junior Orange Bowl, the annual South Florida tournament for the 12s and 14s, and all four of the winners of the IMG Academy International Championships earlier this month have advanced to the Final Four.

The top four seeds will face off in the boys 12s, with a rematch of the IMG final between Rui He and James Borchard coming a round earlier this year.

The girls 12s semifinals have only one seed, with IMG champion and top seed Fangqiao Zou of China looking to earn back-to-back titles.

The IMG 14s champions Mohamed Genidy of Egypt and Ayaka Iwasa of Japan are also still alive in Coral Gables. Iwasa will take on Konstantina Volonaki of Greece, with Volonaki hoping to avenge her loss to Iwasa in the IMG final.

Junior Orange Bowl quarterfinal results:

B12s:

Rui He[1](CHN) d. Yeseong Lee(KOR) 6-3, 6-1

James Borchard[4](USA) d. William McGugin[5](USA_ 6-3, 6-2

Evan Fan[3](USA) d. Ethan Wang[6](AUS) 6-3, 6-1

Oliver Baker[1](AUS) d. Minchan Kwon(KOR) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4

B14s:

Mohamed Genidy[1](EGY) d. Agui Nanato(JPN) 6-2, 6-4

Siyun Kim[4](KOR) d. Denis Karabulut(CAN) 6-2, 6-4

Smyan Thuta(USA) d. Akhmadi Makhanov(KAZ) 4-6, 6-1, 6-4

Tristan Ascenzo[2](USA) d. Max Neumann(USA) 6-3, 6-1

G12s:

Fangqiao Zou[1](CHN) d. Inie Toli[6](USA) 6-1, 6-1

Jiru Yang(CHN d. Seungyeon Seo(AUS) 6-2. 6-2

Xiaoke Li(CHN) d. Yoonseol Choi(KOR) 6-0, 6-2

Annie Tan(USA) d. Mio Ohta(JPN) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4

G14s:

Nikol Davletshina[1](USA) d. Olivia Lin[5](USA) 4-6, 6-4, 6-0

Isabella Yan[4](CAN) d. Yerin Lim[6](KOR) 6-4, 6-0

Konstantina Volonaki(GRE) d. Tanvi Pandey[3](USA) 3-6, 1-0 ret. inj

Ayaka Iwasa[7](JPN) d. Isha Manchala[2](USA) 7-5, 3-0 ret. inj.

The doubles semifinals have not yet been decided, with some quarterfinal matches scheduled for Tuesday morning before the semifinals in the afternoon.

The draws for singles and doubles can be found here.