Last year's post-Wimbledon article of opinions and observations helped me put a bow on the gift of covering my 12th Junior Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club(I covered 2021 remotely) and also drew a surprisingly large number of readers. In year 13, I also had a variety of items that didn't make it into the daily posts, so at the risk of repeating myself (the schedule, the schedule, the schedule) here is the second edition:
Roehampton revisited:
Before I dig into Wimbledon, the J300 in Roehampton deserves mention. I had not been to that event since 2017 and had no intention of returning, but the stars aligned: an early landing Friday morning in London, good weather and two singles and one doubles finalist from the United States. Although the grounds are not easily accessible by public transportation, we managed to arrive before the start of play, which also includes the final round of Wimbledon Junior qualifying. Again, Americans were prevalent in that competition, with six qualifying and one more making the Wimbledon Junior Championships main draw as a lucky loser, so there was no dearth of matches to watch. I focused on the Roehampton finals, all unfortunately scheduled at the same time, and
was able to speak to both Michael Antonius and Janae Preston about their titles and their success in J300s going into Wimbledon.
The Roehampton grounds have changed so much from my visit nine years ago as to be practically unrecognizable, with several stadium courts and much improved player spaces and amenities, although the courts for the Wimbledon Junior qualifying looked very familiar—just a strip of courts with little seating delineated by green temporary fencing. And, in a major drawback, there was no live scoring, in contrast to the J300 in Roehampton, which had live scoring all week. For families and fans unable to attend, the inability to follow along during the match that would decide a place in the Wimbledon Junior Championships had to be frustrating, and even if you were on the grounds, scores were nearly impossible to find.
The difference in the surfaces from Roehampton to AELTC is always a topic of conversation, with the consensus that Roehampton, having seen more wear-and-tear during the men's and women's qualifying, are faster. Whether this matters is open to debate, and the correlation between Roehampton champions and Wimbledon Junior champions varies.
It's rare for boys to win the only two major grass events on the junior calendar back-to-back, with only four accomplishing that this century, with the most recent ten years ago, when Denis Shapovalov of Canada swept both. In contrast, ten girls have won both, most recently American Liv Hovde in 2022 and Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia in 2023. From 2010 to 2019, seven girls won Roehampton and then the Wimbledon girls title, and only one boy did, so trends are, as of now, gender specific.
Where were all the college coaches?
I can think of no more striking indication of the change in Division I tennis than the dearth of head coaches at Roehampton and the Wimbledon Junior Championships this year. In past years, many head coaches of Top 25 programs attended qualifying at Roehampton and spent several days assessing talent at Wimbledon, but this year I saw almost none of the top coaches I regularly chatted with, although I'm sure I missed some who made brief appearances. Instead of scouting the potential of 18-and-under players, those coaches have directed their attention to players they may have seen and/or recruited two or three years ago at Wimbledon, who rebuffed their offer of a scholarship offer then and went on to play pro tennis, but are now open to returning in the era of NIL.
The TCU connection to Great Britain is showing no signs of diminishing, with both David Roditi and Devin Bowen on site, and Stanford's Paul Goldstein joined assistant Harrison Adams for the late stages of the Arthur Fery run. Texas A&M's Steve Denton, a member of the Wimbledon Final Eight club, and Duke's Ramsey Smith, whose father Stan won the men's title in 1972, are regularly in attendance and were again this year, but even counting the many assistant coaches I don't know, I estimate that this year's tournament drew less than half the usual number of college coaches.
Arizona State's Jamea Jackson was the most visible women's head coach on site, but as with the men, there was a noticeably reduced number of women's coaches from the Top 25 onsite.
The silver lining to an unexpected loss:No. 3 seed Keaton Hance, who reached the final of the Australian Open and the semifinals of Roland Garros, bowed out in the second of the Wimbledon Junior Championships to Arnav Paparkar of India 6-2, 6-3. Given his previous success this year at junior slams, Hance was certainly disappointed that he was unable to equal his third round performance at Wimbledon last year, but he had the consolation of being available to attend his sister's wedding, half a world away in Hawaii. Hance, the 2025 US Open boys doubles champion, did not enter the Wimbledon doubles to avoid a second possible dilemma, so after his singles loss, he was able to catch a flight and enjoy the festivities when Kimmi Hance, the former UCLA star, married Las Vegas Raiders guard Jackson Powers-Johnson Saturday.
Arthur Fery, junior version:
I had never heard of Oliver Page before the Wimbledon Junior Championships, and I'll admit to not paying much attention to yet another British wild card(all eight wild cards went to British players), even after he defeated qualifier Oluwasean Peter Ogunsakin of Nigeria, who had generated some buzz at Roehampton with two routine wins in qualifying. But when the 18-year-old from Wales beat No. 4 seed and Australian Open champion Ziga Sesko of Slovenia 6-4, 6-4 in the second round and followed it up with 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 15 seed Kuan-Shou Chen of Taiwan, the parallels between his run in the juniors and wild card Arthur Fery's run in men's singles were impossible to ignore. Page dropped his quarterfinal match to No. 11 seed Thijs Boogaard of the Netherlands, falling short of equaling Fery's semifinal appearance, but he will begin his college career at Wichita State this fall with a newfound confidence.
"I wish they had grass courts there to train on, but unfortunately I don't think that will be the case," said Page, whose A-Level exams this year reduced his opportunity to play a full slate of World Tennis junior events.
Yet Page never doubted that Division I tennis in the United States was in his future.
"A lot of people in a similar situation to me take the college route," Page said. "We kind of knew we'd take that route. My agent Pippa(Lane) put my profile out to people and college coaches reached out to me. I spoke to quite a few, visited some. I have a friend who went there, so it's good to have someone there I know. I just got in contact with the coach, me and my dad visited, and I liked the team, I liked the campus and in about a month, I'm going. It's exciting."
Agents abound:While Page referred to his agent, and is technically correct in doing so, those who are principals in companies that find roster spots for players in US colleges, as Lane does, have been a part of the collegiate recruiting landscape for decades. Top juniors with more high-profile agents—be it IMG, Octagon, Topnotch or other sports management companies—are also not rare, although few Americans had them previously, when signing with an agency rendered them ineligible to compete in college. That is no longer the case with the new NIL rules that govern NCAA sports, so, unlike college coaches, they are as numerous as ever on the outside courts, watching juniors they have signed or hope to sign, regardless of nationality.
Not all sponsorships are global:
Janae Preston has had an astounding 2026, winning four J300 titles, most recently in Roehampton, then reaching the semifinals at Junior Wimbledon unseeded. Now up to 6 in the latest World Tennis junior rankings, the soon-to-be 16-year-old is sporting a logo unique to her hometown of Henderson Nevada: that of the
Four Seasons luxury hotel chain.
"A family friend of my dad wants to invest more in tennis, and he is currently building Four Seasons Las Vegas residences there," Preston said. "He wants to start sponsoring athletes, and I managed to be one of those athletes. I'm very honored."
Celebrity brings the spotlight to boys final:
Although always well-attended by the tennis-loving British public, the Wimbledon junior tennis finals rarely garner any interest from the media onsite, and that was again the case this year for the girls final. After Russian Anna Pushkareva upset top seed and Roland Garros finalist Xinran Sun of China 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, with 8000 fans filling Court One to watch the longest girls final since records have been kept, a grand total of two journalists attended her press conference in the 100-seat Media Theatre: me and Ross McLean of World Tennis.
In contrast, boys finalist Cruz Hewitt, the son of 2002 Wimbledon men's singles champion Lleyton Hewitt, was in demand with the press throughout the week, routinely drawing a half dozen journalists after each match. I am usually the only journalist to interview the player that loses in a junior final, at a hightop in the media pavilion lobby; this year Hewitt drew at least three times as many journalists as the five whom champion Jordan Lee spoke to in his press conference in the Media Theatre.
Unsurprisingly the majority of those interested in Hewitt were from the Australian press, in a room with enough seats to accommodate most of them and a door that could be closed, and the questions were less about the final itself than about Hewitt's reaction to losing, his father's role in the player's box and his future plans.
Usually I can count on one hand the number of occupants in the press seats on Court One for a junior final; for the boys this year, they were nearly full. And although the quality of the match was excellent, with twists and turns and the requisite suspense late in the third set, I know that wasn't what attracted all the journalists. Unless Hewitt makes another junior slam final (and he's not expected to play in his last opportunity in juniors at the US Open), I'm confident the interest in junior finals will return to its previous levels.
The schedule:
There were several reasons the junior finals were played in front of near-capacity crowds on Court One, and one of them is the scheduling of the matches not before 1 p.m. with the women's and men's finals now scheduled for a 4 p.m. start. Pushing back the previous 2 p.m. start time for the men's and women's singles hasn't been particularly popular, but it has increased the window for exposure to the junior finals.
Although extremely hot throughout the second week, rain delays were non-existent, providing a leisurely pace to complete the 64-player singles and 32-team doubles draws in nine days. The girls draws and both doubles draws are finished in eight days, with the finals on Saturday; the boys receive an extra day of rest before the final, but all players get a day off from singles during the week.
"I love it, I love it," said Janae Preston, who played six singles matches in six days in Roehampton the previous week. "It's nice to let my body recover, relax a little bit, avoid the stress."
Boys champion Jordan Lee, who came through qualifying, was happy to have the day before the boys final to recuperate.
"I'll get some good sleep, try to rest and recover as best as I can," said Lee, who planned to make his way into Court One to observe the atmosphere. "I'll hit once, but I've played a lot of tennis, so I don't think I need to play too much tomorrow."
As I mentioned last year when praising the Wimbledon junior schedule, the US Open and Roland Garros cram their Junior Championships into seven days (the Australian Open uses eight days) for reasons I have never understood, limiting the fans' exposure to junior tennis and adding to everyone's stress if the weather is not perfect. There are many things Wimbledon does better than any other slam; junior scheduling is definitely one of them.
