US Opens Junior Tennis Champions

This year, the fourth and final Grand Slam event of the year played out on the outdoor courts of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.  The 134^th edition of the US Open took place over a two week period this summer, from August 25-September 8, 2014, in New York City.  Rafael Nadal (Spain), the defending champion in the men’s event, withdrew on August 18 due to a wrist injury, leaving the title for Marin Čilić (Croatia) to take.  Serena Williams (USA) remained the two-time defending champion in the women’s event.  The top three players in the received bonus prize money depending on where they finished.  Milos Raonic (Canada) was awarded $70,000 and Serena Williams $1,000,000.

In winning the women’s singles, Williams tied a number of Open Era records as well as her 6th title tying fellow American Chris Evert and her 18th grand slam singles title tying the American record held by Evert and Martina Navratilova.  In men’s doubles, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan became the most victorious doubles team in Open era history winning their 100th title together and 16th grand slam title tying Todd Woodbridge for the Open era record.  After a victory at the 2013 French Open, Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina won the women’s doubles competition title, becoming two-time grand slam champions.  The winning mixed doubles team was Sania Mirza and Bruno Soares.

US Opens Junior Tennis Champions

In the Junior US Opens, 17 year old Omar Jasika from Australia won the title for Boys’ Singles and 16 year old Marie Bouzková from the Czech Republic took the Girls’ Singles.  Omar Jasika and Naoki Nakagawa won Boys’ Doubles and İpek Soylu and Jil Teichmann Girls’ Doubles.

Omar Jasika

Omar Jasika, age 17, has a career high ATP singles ranking of 789.  Jasikas parents emigrated to Australia from Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the Bosnian War, before Omar was born in May 1997.  Jasika holds the US Open titles for boys’ singles and, with Naoki Nakagawa, the boy’s doubles titles.  He was awarded $7,045 in prize money.  Since the US Open, Jasika has made his ATP World Tour debut in September, almost defeating Rajeev Ram in the Malaysian Open.

Marie Bouzková

Marie Bouzková, age 16, was born July 21, 1998 in Prague.  From the Czech Republic, she now lives in Bradenton, Florida.   After defeating Anhelina Kalinina 6–4, 7–6 in the final, Bouzková is the current holder of US Open girls’ singles title taking home $2,886 in prize money.  She has a career high WTA singles ranking of 771.

Naoki Nakagawa (中川直樹)

Naoki Nakagawa (中川直樹), age 17, was born November 19, 1996 inFukutsu, Fukuoka.  From Japan, he now lives in Bradenton, Florida.  Nakagawa along with Omar Jasika is the current holder of US Open boys’ doubles title. Nakagawa has a career high ATP singles ranking of 734 achieved on 26 May 2014.  He took home $4,706 in prize money

Ipek Soylu

İpek Soylu, age 18, was born April 15, 1996 in Adana, Turkey.  So far in her career, Soylu has won seven singles and six doubles titles on the ITF tour. At the US Opens, she reached her best singles ranking of world number 303. A month later, on September 29, 2014, she peaked at world number 360 in the doubles rankings.  She won the US Open girls’ doubles title with Jil Teichmann.  She took home the most prize money out of all the youth tennis players at this year’s US Open: $33,194.  Playing for Turkey at the Fed Cup, Soylu has a win–loss record of 4–3.  She is also a member of the Enkaspor tennis team.

Jil Belen Teichman

Jil Belen Teichmann, age 17, was born July 15, 1997 in Barcelona, Spain.  She currently lives in Switzerland. Along with İpek Soylu, she currently holds the US Open girls’ doubles title after defeating Vera Lapko and Tereza Mihalíková 5–7, 6–2, [10–7] in the final. Teichmann has a career high WTA singles ranking of 630 and a career high WTA doubles ranking of 506.  She took home $5,538 this year.