ITF Junior Masters

The ITF Junior Masters is a year-end singles tournament for the top-ranked 18-and-under tennis players on the ITF Junior Circuit (ITF Junior World Ranking). It is the second most prestigious annual junior event in terms of rankings points awarded, after the four junior grand slams. Each year, eight boys and eight girls participate in separate events. The tournament is designed to emulate the ATP Finals and WTA Finals. Each event features two round-robin groups vying for spots in the knockout rounds that determine the champion.

It is played outdoor on hard surface since first edition.

History

The ITF Junior Masters was founded in 2015, and has been held in Chengdu, China each year. The first two editions were held as exhibitions. 2017 edition of the competition was the first to be held at the end of the year.^[1] The ITF began awarding rankings points to participants in 2017, and the current points system started in 2018.^[2]

Format

In 2015 and 2016 it was a knockout tournament (QF-SF-F). Losers played placement matches: 3rd place play-off and 5th to 8th play-off.

In 2017 format was changed. The boys' and girls' events each consist of two round-robin groups of four players. The top two finishers in each group qualify for the championship knockout bracket. The bottom two finishers qualify for the 5th–8th place knockout bracket. In each bracket, one of the higher-ranked finishers from the round-robin stage plays the lower-ranked finisher from the opposite group. The winners of the first knockout matches in the championship bracket play for the title, while the winners of the first knockout matches in the 5th–8th place bracket play for 5th place. There are also 3rd-place and 7th-place matches for the losers of the first knockout matches. These final matches all award ITF junior rankings points to the winners as follows^[3]:

Qualification

The top seven boys and girls in the ITF junior rankings automatically qualify for the tournament. The final slot in each event is reserved for the top ranked Chinese junior, provided they are ranked inside the Top 25. If there is no such player or if there already is a Chinese player who qualified in one of the top seven positions, the last spot goes to the eighth ranked player. The date for the rankings that are used is immediately after the conclusion of the US Open in September. Thus, these rankings incorporate results from all tournaments since, but not including the previous year's US Open. Additionally, the players must not turn 19 until the January following the tournament to be eligible (i.e. the 2018 event is for players born in 2000 or later).^[2]

Prize money

There is no prize money for the players, given that they are still juniors. However, there are travel grants for participation in the tournament that are awarded based on a player's performance in the event. These range from $7,000 to $15,000.^[2]

List of finals & participants

Boys

Location	Year	Champion	Runner-up	Score	3rd place	4th place	5th place	6th place	7th place	8th place
Chengdu	2015	Andrey Rublev	Taylor Fritz	6–7(2–7), 6–3, 6–4	Lee Duck-hee	Orlando Luz	Chung Yun-seong	Michael Mmoh	Marcelo Zormann	Jaume Munar
	2016	Hong Seong-chan	Casper Ruud	7–5, 6–3	Marcelo Tomás Barrios Vera	Miomir Kecmanović	William Blumberg	Álvaro López San Martín	Orlando Luz	Lý Hoàng Nam
	2017	Emil Ruusuvuori	Wu Yibing	3–6, 6–1, 7–6(7–4)	Axel Geller	Sebastián Báez	Marko Miladinović	Jurij Rodionov	Hsu Yu-hsiou	Trent Bryde

Girls

Location	Year	Champion	Runner-up	Score	3rd place	4th place	5th place	6th place	7th place	8th place
Chengdu	2015	Xu Shilin	Kristína Schmiedlová	6–4, 6–2	Iryna Shymanovich	Jil Teichmann	Aliona Bolsova Zadoinov	Jeļena Ostapenko	Elena-Gabriela Ruse	Markéta Vondroušová
	2016	Anna Blinkova	Katie Swan	6–4, 6–7(1–7), 7–6(7–4)	Charlotte Robillard-Millette	Kayla Day	Tereza Mihalíková	Sofia Kenin	Usue Maitane Arconada	Miriam Kolodziejová
	2017	Marta Kostyuk	Kaja Juvan	6–4, 6–3	Whitney Osuigwe	María Lourdes Carlé	María Camila Osorio Serrano	Wang Xinyu	Elena Rybakina	Sofia Sewing

References