Lee and Preston Reach Wimbledon Junior Championships Singles Semifinals; Antonius and Johnson Advance to Boys Doubles Semis; Manchala Earns Two Wins to Start 14U Tournament; Gauff Falls in Third Set Tiebreaker; Arevalo Claims Wimbledon Mixed Title

©Colette Lewis 2026--
Wimbledon--

Sixteen-year-old Jordan Lee is making his junior slam debut a memorable one, while 15-year-old Janae Preston has fashioned a ten-match winning streak on grass, after the American pair posted straight-sets Wimbledon Junior Championships quarterfinal victories on another blistering day at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

Lee took to show court 18 first, after the Men's Invitational doubles match, which featured Lleyton Hewitt, the father of Lee's potential opponent in the boys final, Cruz Hewitt. 

If Lleyton Hewitt stuck around to do some scouting, he would have witnessed Lee's third win in the last two months over unseeded Arnav Paparkar of India, this time by a score of 6-2, 7-5.

Lee was in control throughout the first set, with Paparkar struggling to stay in the rallies when he didn't get his first serve in. 

The second was much tighter, with Paparkar, who had lost to Lee on clay at the J300 Belgium in May and last week in Roehampton, taking a 3-1 lead before Lee broke back for 3-all and held to take a 6-5 lead. Down 0-30 serving to stay in the match, the 18-year-old Paparkar hit a 128 mph ace to relieve some of the pressure, but Lee's superior depth on his groundstrokes forced an error to set up two match points. Paparkar saved the first by controlling the rally from corner to corner before Lee made and error, and got a gift from Lee to save the second when Lee couldn't get a second serve return back in play. But an ill-advised drop shot attempt that didn't clear the net gave Lee a third opportunity, which he converted when Paparkar made an unforced error on the backhand.

Lee has now played six singles matches in the past seven days, with each day warmer than the previous one, but the Orlando resident said he's experiencing no repercussions from that.

"I feel fine," said Lee, who was out with a wrist injury for most of 2025, but says that issue is now resolved. "And I'm hungry for more. I'm ready for whatever comes my way and I'll deal with it as best as possible."

Lee says he is not surprised by his run this week.

"No, I've put in a lot of work to this point," said Lee, who works with USTA national coaches Felipe Mantilla and Sylvain Guichard in Orlando. "And with the injuries. it was not easy at all, but this is where I belong. I feel confident in my game and I feel I can never get enough."

An unseeded boys finalist is guaranteed, when Lee takes on Vincent Reisach of Germany Friday, after Reisach defeated Jack Secord 6-3, 6-3 on show court 12.

Reisach lost in the first round at Roehampton last week, which was his first tournament on grass, but the 17-year-old from Bavaria is averaging 124 mph on his first serve and using his flat backhand to maximum effect as the courts get faster with the 90 degree temperatures.

"It's a little bit slower here, I think, but my serve is pretty good here," said Reisach, who has struck 137 mph first serve sin each of his last two matches. "I like the serve plus one, come to the net, and I have that flat backhand and I think that's a good game for grass."

Unlike Lee, Reisach admits this is an unexpected result for him.

"At the beginning of the tournament, I just wanted to have fun here, find out where I am in the juniors, get the experience." said Reisach, who won the Roland Garros boys doubles title with Jamie Mackenzie last month. "So yes, it surprises me, of course."

Reisach and Lee met in the doubles semifinals last week in Roehampton, with Reisach and Mackenzie winning 6-1, 6-2, but that is the only time they have played.

"I know he's (birth year) 2010, he plays amazing for 2010," Reisach said. "And now he's in semis. We haven't played in singles yet, but I'm looking forward to it."

The semifinal in the bottom half will feature No. 11 seed Thijs Boogaard of the Netherlands and Hewitt, with both posting routine victories. Boogaard ended the run of British wild card Oliver Page 6-3, 6-1, who had, of course, the majority of the support on show court 12, but fell short of producing the junior version of Arthur Fery.

"I watched his match after mine yesterday," said 18-year-old from Wales, who will start his collegiate career next month at Wichita State. "Obviously yesterday when I won I was in the quarters and I was watching him play the quarters. He definitely gave me inspiration that I could win today, but it didn't go that way. But still an incredible run here, being a wild card."

Page, who beat No. 4 seed and Australian Open champion Ziga Sesko in the second round and No. 15 seed Kuan-Shou Chen of Taiwan in the third round, saw a different level from Boogaard today.

"From point one, you could tell he is ready to play, and has got the ability to play, men's tennis," said Page, who lost the winners battle 20 to 4. "Playing against him is like a different level from the juniors. You can tell he's adapting to the men's game and is ready to play men's tennis."

Boogaard and Cruz will be meeting for the first time in Friday's semifinal.

Preston followed Lee on Court 18, but she didn't spend much time there, beating unseeded Emily Eigelsbach of Germany 6-3, 6-1 in 64 minutes.

As the temperature continued to rise, Preston detected a weakness she could exploit and did not shy away from doing so.

"I didn't play my best, but I think I played smart today," said the 15-year-old from Nevada, who had 22 winner and 13 unforced errors. "I build the points pretty well; I don't know if the heat was getting to her, but whenever we had longer points I managed to get them, so I was trying to move her a little more."

Preston will aim for her eleventh consecutive win on grass when she plays top seed and World Tennis junior No. 1 Xinran Sun of China, who overwhelmed Austrian qualifier Anna Pircher 6-0, 6-3 in 53 minutes.

"I know she's super solid," said the Roehampton champion, who has not played against Sun, the Roland Garros finalist. "She gets every ball back, but she's also super aggressive. She definitely knows her game and she trusts it; I would say that's a big thing."

Although she's a long way from her home town of Henderson Nevada, Preston said she's feeling the support from the Las Vegas suburb.

"People at home, they're going crazy," said Preston, who wouldn't be surprised if her grandparents organized a watch party. "I try not to read too much into it, but they're really happy for me and excited."

The other girls semifinal will feature 15-year-old Polina Skliar of Ukraine, the No. 15 seed, against No. 14 seed Anna Pushkareva of Russia. Skliar won the day's longest junior match, beating No. 7 seed Mariia Marakova of Russia 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-4, while Pushkareva, 17, defeated unseeded Yihan Qu 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

The doubles semifinals are also set for Friday, with one US team remaining. No. 2 seeds Michael Antonius and Andy Johnson will face unseeded Raffaele Ciurnelli of Italy and Leon Sloboda of Slovakia in the bottom half semifinal; top seeds Luis Guto Miguel of Brazil and Ziga Sesko of Slovenia will face unseeded Oluwaseun Ogunsakin of Nigeria and Ntungamili Raguin of Botswana.

Top seeds Victoria Barros and Nana Leme Da Silva of Brazil will face the unseeded team of Polina Berezina of Russia and Anastasija Cvetkovic of Serbia in the top half of the girls doubles draw. No. 8 seeds Ida Wobker of Germany and Denisa Zoldakova of Czechia will face No. 5 seeds Jana Kovackova and Katerina Zajickova of Czechia. Kovackova currently holds all three junior girls doubles titles and will make history as the only girl to win all four if she takes the title here on Saturday.

Doubles quarterfinal results of Americans:

Victoria Barros and Nana Leme Da Silva(BRA)[1] d. Thea Frodin 

and Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi(IND)[7] 3-6, 6-4, 10-6

Polina Berezina(RUS) and Anastasija Cvetkovic(SRB) d. Jordyn Hazelitt and Welles Newman 6-2, 6-2

Michael Antonius and Andy Johnson[2] d. Hyu Kawanishi and Kanta Watanabe(JPN) 6-4, 6-2

The 14 and under tournament began today, with Isha Manchala picking up two wins in Group A and David Bender getting a victory in Group B.  Anna Kapanadze lost both of her matches in Group D. Bender will play twice tomorrow, with Manchala and Kapanadze playing once, after which the group winners will be determined, and move into Saturday's semifinals.

Group play results of Americans in 14U tournament:

Isha Manchala d. Ke-Chieh Hsu(TPE) 6-1, 6-2

Isha Manchala d. Isabella Rebel(GBR) 7-5, 6-2

Nishta Kesavan(GBR) d. Anna Kapanadze 7-6(2), 6-4

Lyubov Pronenko(RUS) d. Anna Kapanadze 6-3, 6-7(5), 10-4

David Bender d. Mathias Gonzalez Osorio(COL) 6-2, 6-2

The boys draw is here; the girls draw is here.

Friday's order of play is here.

Coco Gauff's bid for a third major final was agonizingly close Thursday, but she couldn't convert her match point in the third set tiebreaker, falling to Karolina Muchova of Czechia 6-2, 1-6 7-6(10). For more on that semifinal, see this article from the BBC. 

Former Tulsa standout Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador won his third major doubles title tonight on Wimbledon's Centre Court. No. 2 seeds Arevalo and partner Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated the unseeded Australian team of Marc Polmans and Storm Hunter 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 in the mixed doubles championship match. Arevalo, who won the 2022 and 2024 Roland Garros men's doubles title, will play for the men's doubles title Saturday with partner Mate Pavic of Croatia. They will face top seeds Harri Heliovaara of Finland and Henry Patten(UNC-Asheville) of Great Britain in final Saturday.