By Sally Milano
Sixteen of the world's top junior players have been invited to compete in the third annual ITF Junior Masters, Oct. 25-29, in Chengdu, China, and a quarter of that field is from the United States.
Whitney Osuigwe, Sofia Sewing, Taylor Johnson and Trent Bryde (pictured above) will compete at next month's 2017 ITF Junior Masters, which is one of the premier events on the ITF junior calendar.
The tournament features eight boys and eight girls who qualified on the basis of their ITF World Junior Ranking as of Sept. 11. This is the first year the tournament has been held during the regular season and will form part of the race to become 2017 ITF Junior World Champion.
Osuigwe burst onto the international tennis scene in June, when the 15-year-old from Bradenton, Fla., captured the girls' singles title at the junior French Open. Since then, the No. 2-ranked junior girl in the world reached the doubles final and singles quarterfinals at junior Wimbledon and last week led the U.S. girls' team to the 2017 Junior Fed Cup title, its third in the last six years.
Related: U.S. wins Junior Fed Cup title
Sewing, an 18-year-old from Doral, Fla., is at a career-high No. 9 in the world rankings. Her results this year include reaching the singles quarterfinals and doubles semifinals at junior Wimbledon and winning the doubles title and reaching the singles final at the prestigious Grade A event in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Seventeen-year-old Johnson of Redondo Beach, Calif., kicked off the year by reaching the doubles quarterfinals and singles round of 16 at the Australian Open Junior Championships. She advanced to the singles final at the International Spring Championships, the doubles final and singles semifinals at the Easter Bowl, and reached a career-high ranking of No. 8 in June. She is currently ranked No. 14 in the world.
Bryde is the highest-ranked American boy in the ITF World Junior Rankings, at No. 12. The 18-year-old from Suwanee, Ga., recently reached the doubles semifinals at the junior US Open. Earlier this year, he swept the singles and doubles titles at Porto Alegre and reached the doubles quarterfinals at the junior Australian Open.
Other players competing in the girls' field include: world No. 3 Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine, the 2017 Australian Open singles champion; No. 5 Elena Rybakina of Russia; No. 8 Kaja Juvan of Slovenia; No. 10 Xin Yu Wang of China; and No. 12 Maria Lourdes Carle of Argentina.
The boys' draw includes: No. 1 Yibing Wu of China, the reigning US Open singles and doubles champion; No. 2 Axel Geller of Argentina, a finalist at this year's US Open and Wimbledon; No. 7 Yu Hsiou Hsu of Taiwan, the 2017 US Open doubles winner; No. 8 Jurij Rodionov of Austria; No. 9 Marko Miladinovic of Serbia; No. 11 Sebastian Baez of Argentina; and No. 14 Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland.
The boys’ and girls’ singles events will consist of two round-robin groups of four players, with the top two players in each group qualifying for the semifinals. The draws for both events will be held Oct. 24.
For the first time, this year’s event will offer junior world ranking points to help determine the year-end No. 1 ranking. A total prize fund of $160,000 in travel grants will also be made available to participants.
China’s two-time Grand Slam singles champion Li Na will serve as ambassador for the event for the second straight year.
Click here for more information on the tournament.