The AO Junior Championships is the year’s first serve… an unveiling.
It was for the No. 7 seed Žiga Šeško who trimmed fellow 17-year-old Keaton Hance, the 4th seed, 4–6, 6–3, 6–4 in the Boys’ Singles final. He became the first Slovenian to win a Slam title since Kaja Juvan who won the 2017 Girls’ Doubles title at The Championships, teaming with Serbian Olga Danilović.
Hance, the 2025 US Open Junior Boys’ Doubles winner with Jack Kennedy, is the youngest in his storied tennis family. His parents Ken and Courtney Hance own South Bay Tennis Center in Torrance, California. Brother Connor and sisters Kenadi and Kimmi were intercollegiate stars as UCLA, University of Washington and UCLA respectively. So, he is simply following in the family footsteps.
In a 16 versus a 17-year old contest Ksenia Efremova, the No. 3 seed, defeated unseeded Ekaterina Tupitsyna, 6–3, 7–5, in the Girls’ final. With the title, Efremova became the first French girl to triumph at the AO since Virginie Razzano in 1999.
The Boys’ Junior Doubles final was an “Unseeded Show…” as Connor Doig of South Africa and Dimitar Kisimov of Bulgaria stopped Australian wild cards Ymerali Ibraimi and Cooper Kose, 6–3, 6–4.
Doig and Kisimov were the first South African and first Bulgarian to win the trophy.
The 2025 US Open Girls’ Doubles champions and the top seeds in Melbourne, were the Kovačková sisters. Alena (born 2008) and Jana (born 2010) defeated unseeded Tereza Heřmanová and Denisa Žoldáková, 6–1, 6–3. All four players hail from the Czech Republic.
The sisters were the fifth team from their country to claim the AO Girls’ Doubles. Andrea Strnadová and Eva Švíglerová were the first in 1989 and Petra Cetkovská and Barbora Strýcová, the last in 2001.
Title photo by Vanessa Taylor