©Colette Lewis and Michael Lewis 2026--
Flushing Meadows NY--
Marcel Latak's surprise at reaching the boys final at the
US Open Junior Championships is exceeded only by his surprise at how he's done it. After defeating No. 2 seed Jamie Mackenzie of Germany 6-3, 7-6(2) Saturday afternoon, Latak was still struggling to comprehend that he hasn't dropped a set this week at the USTA Billie Jean King National Center, beating the No. 6, No. 10, No. 4 and No. 2 seeds.
"It's not getting to the finals that I'm shocked about, it's the way I did it." said the 17-year-old from Darien Illinois, who played his first and only main draw slam match last year at the US Open as the Kalamazoo 16s champion wild card. "Honestly that's the part for me that I can't believe. If I'd split every match and got to the finals, yeah, but to think how I've won these matches, haven't really had to dig them out."
Latak helped his case against the powerful Mackenzie by getting 71 percent of his first serves in and hitting six aces, complementing that with his strategy of first-strike tennis that has been so effective all week.
Mackenzie got his only break of the Latak serve to go up 3-1 in the second set, but Latak immediately got it back.
"Whenever I break, I have a hard time holding," Latak said. "So I knew that was the same for him. That was my best chance to get it back."
With no more breaks, the set went to the tiebreaker and Latak was determined to pounce early.
"The only thing in my head was 'good start', I needed to win first point or two," said Latak, who has now won 11 consecutive matches after taking the J300 title in Canada last Friday. "When he gets his momentum after winning one or two points, he starts playing really well. So if I could get the first break of the tiebreak, or something like that, it would be smooth sailing."
Latak again exceeded his expectations, winning the first four points, then extended his lead to 6-1 with a service winner and an ace. On his second match point, Latak was on defense, but hit a good defensive lob that resulted in a netted overhead by Mackenzie.
"Everyone loves an underdog story," Latak said. "In a way I have an advantage--no one thinks I'm going to do well, no one thinks I'm going to play well, so I can just take that pressure off myself and just go for it, every single match."
Latak is the fourth different American boy to reach a junior slam singles final this year, joining Keaton Hance(Australian Open), Michael Antonius(Roland Garros) and Jordan Lee(Wimbledon).
Latak will of course be the underdog again in the final, against top seed and World Tennis junior No. 1 Guto Miguel of Brazil. Although Miguel posted a routine 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 7 seed Thilo Behrmann of Austria today, he has saved match points in two of his wins over Americans: one in the first round against wild card Daniel Malacek, and in three in yesterday's quarterfinal against Jordan Lee, in a match that lasted nearly three hours and ended in a 13-11 third-set tiebreaker.
Miguel cramped toward the end of that thriller, and then withdrew from his doubles match later that day and left the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center grounds.
Friday, he battled through "feeling really tired," to play some of his best tennis of the week, with Brazilian soccer legend Ronaldo making a surprise visit to his watch the semifinal on Court 7.
“I had no idea; I was shocked when I saw him at the court,” said Miguel, who had never met Ronaldo prior to today. “I know he’s a big tennis fan. When I saw him, I told him what a pleasure it was to have him there, and thank you for coming.”
The match with Lee yesterday, Miguel admitted, was emotionally and physically draining. If he had lost, after reaching the semifinals here last year, Miguel would have surrendered his No. 1 world ranking. Adding to the pressure was Lee's status as the Wimbledon boys champion, and a younger rival to boot.
"It was a bit tense and there was a lot of things around, so nobody wanted to lose,” Miguel said. "In the end I was just thinking how to find a way to win the match.”
Against Behrmann, Miguel broke early in the first set to snare a 3-1 lead and didn’t face a break point on his way to grabbing the lead.
In the second set Berhmann double-faulted to hand Miguel a break in the opening game, but the Austrian broke back for 2-all. Still, Miguel immediately broke again and held serve the rest of the way.
“I was really tired before the match, but when you step onto the field, you feel the fire, you know?” Miguel said.
Miguel and Latak have played once before, three years ago at the Wimbledon 14 and Under event, a match played on indoor hard courts due to rain, which Miguel won.
“I know he’s doing amazing this week, he hasn’t lost a set, right?” Miguel said. “I’ll have to be very careful.”
Latak compared Miguel's game to that of Mackenzie.
"They play somewhat similarly," Latak said, after mentioning Miguel's explosiveness and his ups and downs. "Guto is definitely a way more physical player, but in a sense I feel it's somewhat similar. But if I go for it, at all times, 24/7, I feel I'll give myself a pretty good chance."
While the boys finalists haven't played since the Wimbledon 14s in 2023, Xiran Sun and Anna Pushkareva's meeting came at the All England Lawn Tennis Club just two months ago.
Pushkareva, who came back to beat Sun 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 in front of thousands of fans on Court One, eliminated No. 2 seed Jana Kovackova of Czechia 6-1, 7-5 in today's semifinal on Court 10.
Pushkareva, seeded fifth, dominated the first set, and went up a break to start the second, but Kovackova steadied herself, with a fourth straight break making it 2-all. Kovackova countered Pushkareva's more powerful game with more point construction and fewer errors in the second set, but Pushkareva kept playing aggressively, and found herself serving for match at 5-4.
Pushkareva fell behind 0-30, got it to 30-all but Kovackova forced an error and converted the break point when Pushkareva sent a backhand long. Only momentarily frustrated, Pushkareva got her fourth break of the set, with Kovackova double faulting on the second break point, with a second chance, Pushkareva made the most of it, serving well and hitting her ground strokes confidently to close it out.
Pushkareva is at peace with the errors that she know are part of the game style she's chosen.
"A bit of mistakes, it's ok," said the ebullient 17-year-old from Moscow. "You can't play the whole match the best match of your life. You can't play without mistakes in my tennis, my game. So I can't not do the mistakes, but of course, I was really stressed. I won today, because my dominant game was not bad."
Pushkareva, is looking forward to meeting Sun again as she tries to become the first girl to win Wimbledon and US Open titles in the same year since Kirsten Flipkens in 2003.
"If I lose to her, I know it will be a great battle," Pushkareva said. "When I play against her, I need to think a lot, every time she knows what to do to win. To play against her is really interesting, it's really curious, and that's why I love tennis, actually."
Pushkareva's run to the final has been one straight-sets win after another; Sun's 7-5, 0-6, 6-1 win over American Melije Clarke was impressive for her resilience, a quality she displayed regularly throughout the week.
The 16-year-old from China has had an absolutely spectacular year, reaching two junior slam singles finals: at Roland Garros and at Wimbledon, falling in the finals both times.
But Sun did what she nearly always does: rebound and win. She broke Clarke in the fourth game of the third set and pulled away for a 7-5, 0-6, 6-1 win.
“I just told myself, whatever, lose or win, you just focus on the point and focus on your tactics,” Sun said.
Sun and Clarke had a ferocious battle in the first set, staying even with each other until Clarke broke serve to go up 5-4.
But she was unable to close out the set, with three forehand errors in succession when she reached set point. Sun, the more experienced player, then held serve and broke again to claim the lead.
Clarke admitted that she was thinking about that missed opportunity in the first set, but it freed her to just swing away.
"I think I just started playing like 'I don't care,'" said the 17-year-old from Houston, who was playing in her first junior slam semifinal. "I have nothing to lose at that point, and I just started thinking about small things I wanted to improve from the first set, and not thinking too much about the outcome."
In the third set, Sun said she also tried to stay focused and not think about what was at stake, and now that it’s here, she believes she’ll feel less pressure.
"Last time (at Wimbledon), I really didn’t rest good and I had so much pressure on me, because I wanted it a lot," Sun said. "This time, I will sleep well, and there’s less pressure on me."
While Sun lost her doubles semifinal with partner Mariia Makarova of Russia today, with the top seeds falling to the unseeded Russian team of Polina Berezina and Alisa Terentyeva 6-2, 6-1, Latak will be competing for a second title after his singles final.
Latak and Tanishk Konduri will face unseeded Aaron Gabet of France and Valentin Gonzalez-Galino of Spain for the boys doubles title, who defeated the unseeded British team of Mark Ceban and Rhys Lawlor 6-4, 6-4.
Latak and Konduri, who have been playing together since the J300 in Bradenton last December, squandered three match points in the second set tiebreaker, but came back to defeat unseeded Safir Azam of the United States and Damir Zhalgasbay of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-7(6), 10-5.
"I knew Marcel, of course he's riding so much momentum, but after playing so many matches in so many days, I knew he'd be a little bit tired," said Konduri, a 17-year-old from Northern California. "I just took it upon myself to bring up the energy, get his adrenaline running; I was just loud, yelling, and I feel I did a pretty good job of that, and Marcel fell for my plan."
The girls doubles final tomorrow will not feature the ever-present Jana Kovackova for the first time in a junior slam since Wimbledon 2025, but it will feature junior slam champions: Kristina and Annika Penickova.
On their 17th birthday Friday the duo rolled to another junior slam doubles final with a 7-6(3), 6-2 semifinal win over Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi of India and Antonina Sushkova of Ukraine.
The win advances the Penickova twins to their second Slam doubles final after their championship at the 2025 Australian Open.
"It’s so special to make it to the finals here, doing it together here at the U.S. Open,” Annika Penickova said. “It makes it so much more exciting that it’s here."
Kristina Penickova said the sisters’ singles losses in three-setters earlier in the week provided extra motivation as they look toward another slam doubles title.
"Definitely not how we wanted it to go, but lots to learn from it and lots to take away from it," said Kristina, who won the 2025 Wimbledon girls doubles title with Czechia's Vendula Valdmannova, with Annika out due to injury. "[It] motivated us to do even better in doubles."
The boys and girls singles finals are unfortunately scheduled for 11 a.m.
Saturday and at the same time, with the boys playing on Court 12 and the girls on Court 7, which are not near each other. The girls doubles final is also at 11 a.m., on Court 14. The boys doubles final will be on Court 12 after Latak's singles match.
Latak is attempting to be the first American to sweep the singles and doubles at a slam since Robin Montgomery won the girls titles at the US Open in 2021, and Montgomery came close to another title today in the women's doubles final with partner Ashlyn Krueger.
The 22-year-olds, who received a wild card from the USTA,
threw a huge scare into world No. 1 team Katerina Siniakova of Czechia and American Taylor Townsend.
The USTA 18s and US Open girls doubles champions in 2021 grabbed the first set 7-5 before Siniakova and Townsend rallied for a 5-7, 6-0, 6-2 win.
Montgomery and Krueger were looking to replicate the feat of Siniakova and Barbora Krejickova, who won the girls doubles crown in 2013 and the women’s title in 2022.
"I think what we've just done has been amazing,” Montgomery said. “I think we did forget that we were offered a wild card, so I'm just glad we made good use of it, and I'm glad we were able to come back together and continue playing here, especially with our success in juniors."
"I'm really proud of us," Krueger said. "I think the last two weeks have been amazing for both of us, and really happy that I got to do it with Robin."
Townsend and Siniakova have now completed a career slam in women's doubles, with the US Open the last of the four they need for that feat. Siniakova has now made history by doing it twice with a different partner; she won all four majors the first time with fellow Czech Barbora Krejcikova.
For more on the women's doubles final, see
this article from usopen.org.Ben Shelton is through to the US Open men's final Sunday, winning tonight's all-American semifinal over Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-5. Shelton, the No. 8 seed, will play top seed Alexander Zverev of Germany in an attempt to end the 23-year-old major singles title drought for an American man. Roland Garros champion Zverev reached his second major final of the year with a 6-3, 7-6(7), 7-6(6) win over unseeded Karen Khachanov of Russia.
