Australian Open Junior Acceptances Include 11 Americans; ITF Features on World Junior Champions Fonseca and Korneeva

The acceptances for the Australian Open Junior Championships, January 20-27 2024, were posted today, with seven US boys and four US girls receiving entry into the main draw.

The boys are Kaylan Bigun, Alexander Razeghi, Roy Horovitz, Matthew Forbes, Maxwell Exsted, Cooper Woestendick and Jagger Leach. Nikita Filin, who is six out of the main draw, is the only American boys currently in qualifying. Bigun is the only one of the eight who have played the Australian Open Junior Championships. Sixteen-year-old Darwin Blanch did not enter.

The initial cutoff is 98, but last year the main draw cutoff for boys was 141 after all the withdrawals. The Costa Rica J300, a very popular tournament for Americans, is the same week as the Australian Open Junior Championships, so those who can still play in Melbourne in 2025, will choose that event instead.

Federico Cina of Italy, who played the Australian Open last year but is just 16 years old, is the highest ranked player eligible for the AO juniors, at No. 8. He will be No. 3 in the first 2024 ITF junior rankings, when the 2005 birth years are dropped from the rankings.

The girls main draw entry cutoff was 66, with Mia Ristic of Serbia receiving main draw entry based on here WTA ranking of 332. Last year the cutoff ended up at 140, meaning the six US girls currently in qualifying likely to end up in the main draw.

Americans who are already in the main draw are Kaitlin Quevedo, Iva Jovic, Tyra Grant and Alanis Hamilton, all of whom will be playing the Australian Open for the first time. 

The US girls in qualifying are Mia Slama, Ariana Pursoo, Kate Fakih, Kaitlyn Rolls, Aspen Schuman and Claire An.

The boys have only one current Top 10 player entered in Cina, while the girls have six: Renata Jamrichova[3](SVK), Laura Samsonova[4](CZE), Sara Saito[6](JPN), Quevedo[7], Hannah Klugman[9](GBR) and Tereza Valentova[10](CZE). 

As last year's final cutoffs demonstrate, the fields will change dramatically from this initial list; next week the acceptance list for the Traralgon J300, the only warmup event, will be released and from that you often get a pretty good idea who is likely to make the long trip Down Under.

The list of the acceptances for the men's and women's singles at the Australian Open can be found here.

The ITF made the expected announcement of the ITF World Junior Champions for 2023, with comments about the achievement from Joao Fonseca, the first Brazilian junior to be ITF World Junior Champion, and Alina Korneeva of Russia, who won two junior slams and the ITF World Junior Finals in China. I doubt we will see either in junior competition again, but there's no denying they are going out on top.