Sixteen-year-old Michael Antonius opted to skip the Australian Open Junior Championships this year and instead played two ITF J300s on hard courts in South America. He won them both, giving him the freedom to forget about his ITF junior ranking for the year and focus on getting experience on the USTA Pro Circuit.
He went 14-6 this spring in seven USTA Pro Circuit events, which included the title at the M25 in Bakersfield, where he claimed the distinction as the youngest American to win a Pro Circuit event.
Antonius played only one junior event to prepare for Roland Garros, the J500 in Milan, where he lost in the second round, which as the No. 4 seed, was his first match.
So his run to the boys final at Roland Garros is both a surprise and not a surprise, given his lack of experience at junior slams but also his obvious accomplishments and trajectory this year.
Today in Paris, the 13th-seeded Antonius continued his domination of more experienced seeds, beating Australian Open boys finalist Keaton Hance 6-3, 6-1, with no drama and no indication his form is tailing off.
After beating the No. 2 seed Yannik Alexandrescou, the No. 5 seed and Australian Open boys champion Ziga Sesko and No. 6 seed Hance, Antonius now faces top seed Luis Guto Miguel of Brazil, who is aiming to make history for his country.
Miguel, 17, came from 2-0 down in the third set to end the run of wild card Leonardo Storck Franca of Brazil 6-1, 3-6, 6-2. Unlike Antonius Miguel has been challenged in the last two rounds, but he will be the favorite, given his seeding and his experience on clay.
Miguel lost to Antonius the only time they’ve played in an ITF-sanctioned junior event, but that was nearly three years ago in the ITF World Junior Tennis competition in the Czech Republic, where the 13-year-old Antonius beat the 14-year-old Miguel 6-1, 6-0 in the 5th-8th playoff. The following year, Antonius, Jordan Lee and Teodor Davidov won the title at the WJT, with Antonius, Lee and Andy Johnson then claiming last fall’s Junior Davis Cup title in Chile.
Although three Brazilian boys have won junior slam titles–Tiago Fernandes(2010 Australian Open), Thiago Seyboth Wild(2018 US Open) and Joao Fonseca(2023 US Open)–a Brazilian has never won the Roland Garros boys title. Antonius, by contrast, would be the eighth American boy to win it, with Kaylan Bigun accomplishing that just two years ago.
In this article from the ITF Junior Circuit website, Antonius explains how his two wins over Bigun on the USTA Pro Circuit this spring have given him confidence as he tries to equal Bigun’s accomplishment.
The girls final will feature another chance at history, with No. 2 seed Xinran Sun of China seeking her country’s first junior singles title at Roland Garros. Today, Sun defeated No. 3 seed Victoria Barros of Brazil 6-2, 6-3, the same score of their Orange Bowl semifinal in December. Sun will face No. 12 seed Alisa Oktiabreva, who received entry and her seeding by virtue of her WTA ranking of 309. Oktiabreva had four set points with No. 4 seed Jana Kovackova serving at 3-5 in the first set, but she couldn’t convert, with Kovackova winning the final four games of the set. But despite that disappointment, the 17-year-old Russian bounced back from a 2-0 deficit in the second set to claim a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 victory, improving on her 2023 semifinal finish in Paris as a 14-year-old.
Sun and Oktiabreva have played recently, in the semifinals of February’s W35 in Tunisia, with Oktiabreva, who won the title, beating Sun 6-2, 6-1. In this article from the ITF Junior Circuit website, Oktiabreva explains why she is not expecting a similar scoreline in Saturday’s final.
In addition to Antonius, two other Americans will play for a Roland Garros junior title Saturday, with Welles Newman and Jordyn Hazelitt reaching the girls doubles final with a win today.
No. 8 seeds Newman and Hazelitt, who won a W35 title early this month in Florida, defeated No. 4 seeds Sun and Ruien Zhang of China 6-4, 6-3. They will face the unseeded team of Kovackova, last year’s US Open doubles champion and Roland Garros finalist, and partner Katerina Zajickova of Czechia. Zajickova and Kovackova, who reached three junior slam finals with sister Alena, including this year’s Australian Open, defeated the unseeded team of Luna Cinalli of Argentina and Ha Eum Lee of Korea 6-3, 6-1.
The boys doubles final will also feature an unseeded team, with Daniel Jade and Mathys Domenc of France defeating No. 2 seeds Hance and Jack Kennedy, the 2025 US Open boys doubles champions, 6-3, 6-4. Domenc and Jade will play No. 8 seeds Jamie Mackenzie and Vincent Reisach of Germany, who defeated No. 6 seeds Jack Secord and Yannik Alvarez of Puerto Rico 7-5, 6-2.
The winning streaks for University of North Carolina teammates Tatum Evans and Reese Brantmeier continued, with rising senior Evans and recent graduate Brantmeier reaching the semifinals at two different USTA Pro Circuit tournaments.
Brantmeier, who won the W35 last week in Wichita, received a wild card into the W100 in Sumter South Carolina and she has advanced to the semifinals, beating qualifier Kylie Collins(Texas, LSU, Oklahoma State) 6-2, 7-5. Brantmeier had beaten No. 5 seed Katrina Scott(Tennessee), fellow USTA American Collegiate US Open Playoff participant later this month, 6-2, 6-2 in the second round. Brantmeier will face another collegian in the semifinals, with LSU sophomore Cadence Brace of Canada, the No. 2 seed, reaching the the semifinals with a 6-0, 7-5 win over wild card Malaika Rapolu(Texas). Brace beat Brantmeier last summer in the first round of the W100 in Cary NC 6-1, 7-6(5).
In the top half, 16-year-old Kristina Liutova has extended her W100 winning streak to eight matches, with the Russian-born Seattle resident earning a tough 7-6(2), 7-5 win over Eryn Cayetano(USC) to set up a meeting with top seed Whitney Osuigwe. Osuigwe, who defeated former Georgia star Mell Reasco of Ecuador 6-4, 6-4, will try to end the run of Indian Harbour Beach W100 champion Liutova in Saturday’s semifinals.
Evans, who won the W15 in Lakewood California last week as a qualifier, earned a special exempt spot this week in Lakewood to avoid qualifying, and she immediately took out the top seed. Today Evans defeated No. 5 seed Kailey Evans(Texas Tech, USD) 7-6(2), 6-0 to post her tenth consecutive win in the past 12 days. She will play No. 8 seed Kristina Penickova, the former ITF junior number 1, who has returned from a six-month injury layoff in impressive form. The 16-year-old, currently No. 8 in the ITF junior rankings, beat No. 4 seed Rachel Gailis (Florida) 6-2, 6-1.
In the bottom half, UCLA freshman Mayu Crossley of Japan, the No. 2 seed, will face No. 3 seed Dasha Plekhanova of Canada. Plekhanova defeated No. 6 seed Ava Hrastar(Georgia Tech, Ole Miss, Auburn) 6-4, 6-0, while Crossley beat Jo-Yee Chan(Oregon, San Diego State) 6-4, 6-2.
There are no Americans remaining in the semifinals of the M15 in Lakewood, with Marko Mesarovic(Clemson) and Ozan Baris(Michigan State) losing in today’s quarterfinals. Unseeded Oliver Bonding of Great Britain, who just completed his freshman season at TCU, defeated qualifier Mesarovic 6-4, 6-2 and will face No. 4 seed Dmitry Popko of Kazakhstan in the semifinals. Baris lost to Iiro Vasa(San Diego) of Finland 6-3, 6-4 to set up a meeting with fellow qualifier Oliver Ojakaar(Texas) of Estonia. Ojakaar beat No. 2 seed Kento Miyoshi(Illinois) of Japan 7-6(3), 6-2.
At the ATP Challenger 75 in Tyler Texas, rain continues to cause delays, but three of the four semifinalists have been determined. Top seed Adam Walton(Tennessee) of Australia defeated Tim Legout(Texas) of France 6-2, 6-2 in today’s quarterfinals and will play No. 3 seed Liam Draxl(Kentucky) of Canada. Draxl beat qualifier Braden Shick(NC State) 6-2, 6-3.
Qualifier Karl Poling, who played at Princeton and then as a graduate student at UNC, is through to his first ATP Challenger semifinal after beating 2023 Wimbledon boys champion Henry Searle of Great Britain 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-3. He will play the winner of the match between Andre Ilagan(Hawaii) and Yuta Shimizu of Japan, with a third set necessary to decide it after the recent rain delay.