An impressive field will line up for next season’s first junior Grand Slam event at Australian Open 2026, set for 24 January to 1 February at Melbourne Park.
The boys’ singles list is headlined by France’s Yannick Theodor Alexandrscou, ranked fourth but set to become the world No.2 junior in the first week of January when players born before 2008 drop off the list.
He is joined by soon-to-be world No.3 Jack Kennedy of the United States, who won the ITF World Junior Finals in October in China, and recent Orange Bowl champion Thijs Boogaard of the Netherlands.
AO JUNIOR ENTRY LISTS: Boys’ singles | Girls’ singles
Australia’s Cruz Hewitt, son of two-time major champion and former world No.1 Lleyton Hewitt, is also in the draw, one of two local boys in the field alongside Daniel Jovanovski. In the girls’ singles draw, rising stars Tahlia Kokkinkis and Renee Alame will fly the Australian flag.
The girls’ field is led by Czech sisters Alena and Jana Kovackova, both inside the top 10 with France’s Ksenia Efremova, who recently stormed to the J500 title in Osaka without dropping a set.
Also in the field is Orange Bowl champion Sun Xinran, who like Jana Kovackova shows great promise at just 15 years of age.
As with the boys’ rankings, the ITF junior girls’ rankings will be updated in the first week of January 2026, at which point all players born before 2008 – who become ineligible to compete – will be removed from the lists.
This will see the rankings of players on the AO 2026 entry lists adjusted up, as well as the direct-entry cut-off, which for the girls’ field is expected to be an impressive No.63.
The Australian Open junior championships are a strong indicator of future professional success.
This century alone, notable former champions include Andy Roddick (2000), Jelena Jankovic (2001), Marcos Baghdatis (2003), Gael Monfils (2004), Victoria Azarenka (2005), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (2006-07), Karolina Pliskova (2010), Nick Kyrgios (2013) and Alexander Zverev (2014).
More recently, players like Sebastian Korda, Lorenzo Musetti, Clara Tauson, Leylah Fernandez, Jakub Mensik, Mirra Andreeva and Learner Tien have either won the title or reached the final, before going on to make a big impact at professional level.
Evonne Goolagong, Chris O’Neil, Stefan Edberg and Azarenka remain the only players to have collected both the AO junior and senior titles in the Open era.